


Smoking Hail

by Gryffon_Raine



Series: Smoking Hale Verse [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DCU (Comics), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, I have a plot I swear, I just don't know how to describe it, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2018-04-04 15:58:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 97,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4143789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryffon_Raine/pseuds/Gryffon_Raine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 3A Teen Wolf. Post S2 E1 Arrow. What would happen if Felicity had her own secret she was hiding from the team, like the fact three days a month she turns into an alpha werewolf?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Morning After (where you wake up with a hangover and you don't remember drinking)

**Author's Note:**

> Actually Important AN: Ok, so there are a few things I feel I need to say and you need to know before I send this new fic out into the great undefinable unknown that is the internet... So for the Teen Wolf fans this starts out post 3A. I will not be ignoring the major events of Season 3B or 4 I just want to add my own spin. For the Arrow fans this starts out post S2 E1, right after Felicity, Oliver and Diggle get back from Lian Yu. I will not be ignoring the major events of Season 2 of Arrow, but I will be jumping to the space in between episodes for the first few chapters. Since this is a crossover, people will in fact be crossing over as in people from Starling City will go to Beacon Hills and people from Beacon Hills will go to Starling City and both groups of characters will interact with each other, and while that information is probably redundant, I felt it needed to be said. At one point I will also probably bring in characters and events from The Flash, so be prepared. 
> 
> This has also been slightly revamped since its initial publishing on fanfiction.net. Follow me here, follow me there, I have no real preference and I will try and keep them both updated around the same time. I love reviews and kudos, they make my day better, even if they are only one word.
> 
> I DO NOT OWN EITHER OF THESE SHOWS OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS! This is my way of coping and it is being uploaded onto the internet strictly for entertainment purposes. All mistakes are mine, and if you find any feel free to let me know, I would appreciate it.
> 
> I don't think I have anything else to add... so... yeah...

Felicity Smoak woke up in the middle of the night with an excruciating amount of pain agonizingly moving up her left arm towards her chest. Her first thought was that she was having a heart attack, but after discovering the pain continued to spread to her other extremities before circling back to her chest again, she had ruled out the possibility of a heart issue. Had she been able to see more clearly in the dark during those moments she would have realized that something black had been creeping through her veins, and as the pain began to disappear, so did the residual darkness. When the pain had completely subsided there was a blinding flash of light, followed by a much more intense pain, characterized by what felt like her head was exploding outwards, before blacking out.  
When she awoke the next she swore bombs were being dropped on the city. There was a constant crashing noise that was deafening, and with every bomb that landed her head pulsed and ears rang, so that each new sound created a type of overwhelming buzz, consuming all of her, or at least that's what it felt like. She hadn't even tried opening her eyes yet and she could already feel even more pain, this time emanating from the intense white light she was most likely staring at, if that made any sense to her addled mind at all.

She went through the list of possibilities of what could have happened in her head. She hadn't been drinking, so a hangover was out of the question. She had gone to sleep relatively early, so she doubted it was sleep deprivation. She thought about the possibility of being drugged, but the only thing she had consumed the night before was a plate of spaghetti she had cooked herself and a previously unopened bottle of water. The next logical possibility was kidnapping. That was it; she had been kidnapped in the middle of the night and was no longer in Starling City.

She then decided that if she had been kidnapped she wasn't going to make it easy on her kidnappers and needed to do whatever she could to buy time until Oliver and Diggle came to rescue her. Because her absence would most definitely be noticed when she didn't show up at Verdant for her regularly scheduled systems check at 10am, like she did every Saturday. However when she opened her eyes and they had taken a few seconds to adjust to the glaring light, she realized she was in fact in her bed, in her room, in her home. It was 7am, which was the same time she normally woke up every morning, and her alarm hadn't gone off, which meant it was Saturday and everything was relatively normal.

The pain in her head had lessened a small amount, and everything around her seemed to glow with a new energy and life she had never noticed before. It was then she heard a new noise, a crackling noise accompanied by the most delightful smell in the world, granted she couldn't identify it at that exact moment, but the rumbling in her stomach assured her that whatever the scent was it was absolutely and elegantly edible.

In her excitement to get down the stairs and promptly dive head first into what was no doubt the best breakfast she had ever eaten, she hadn't realized her mistake. And when she saw a strange man cooking in her kitchen it suddenly hit her, like running into a brick wall, she lived alone. She quickly surveyed her surroundings and noted that her home had not been ransacked, nothing appeared to be missing and the front door did not appear to have had the locks broken, or the doorway smashed, which was strange considering she specifically remembered locking the all of the doors and windows before she had gone to bed the previous night.

"Good morning Ms. Smoak," the man said politely. "I hope you don't mind but I let myself in and decided to make myself useful. The pain and confusion your are no doubt experiencing right now will subside, for the most part. And everything will be explained over breakfast."

"How did you get in my house?" Felicity asked.

"I found the spare key, under the plastic rock on your front porch. I understand completely if you wish to notify the police of my presence, however since I am technically your lawyer, it might get a bit awkward."

"I don't have a lawyer," Felicity said.

"Every Hale has access to my legal services, even you, Ms. Smoak. Your mother made sure of that before she died," he told her.

"How did you know-"

"Your mother?" he finished for her. He had yet to turn away from the stove, the mystery lawyer. "I was the one who arranged for your adoption with your father's relatives. I kept tabs on you for your mother, as it was an open adoption, and when she died I had your juvenile records sealed, so that her enemies wouldn't become your enemies. Had she not been killed you would've been given the option of seeing her when you turned 18, and you should have already been given access to your trust fund, as you have been twenty-five now for quite some time. Had the circumstances not drastically changed within the last month, I would have continued to keep tabs on you and you would have been none the wiser, however it appears I was correct in assuming you would be the next choice in the line of succession."

"What's that mean? What line of succession? Who are you and what are you talking about?" Felicity asked.

"Can you see ok, everything seems clear to you? Nothing blurry, or undefined?" he asked.

"What does-? Clearly I can see you, strange lawyer man, you're cooking a rather appetizing breakfast on my stove, and you managed to set my table? And I am now sufficiently creeped out." Felicity voiced.

"I was just wondering since you were not wearing your glasses," he noted. "Strange, isn't it, how you didn't immediately put them on when you got up a few moments ago."

"What are you talking about of course-" She reached up to her face to grab and fix her glasses slightly, when she realized she had never put them on. She had needed her glasses every single day of her life since she had turned eight. The optometrist had nearly declared her legally blind when he looked up her prescription a few months ago. It was so bad she could hardly see with contacts in at all. "What did you do to me?"

"I did nothing Ms. Smoak," He replied. He grabbed the pan from the stove and set it down on top of a pot holder he had placed on the kitchen table. There was a large spread of eggs, bacon, and sausage on the large frying pan, and after he set it down he looked up at her and for the first time Felicity could see his face.

He wasn't unattractive, from an objective viewpoint, but something about him tickled her spine. It wasn't a bad feeling, it was just unfamiliar. He was wearing a blue buttoned up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and he also had a pair of red tinted glasses hanging out of the front pocket. She could tell he probably hadn't shaved in the last twenty four hours, but what stood out most were his eyes. His eyes weren't one color, like most peoples, if anything it was a mixture of several different colors, almost like a newborn's. The strangest thing about his presence was the fact she did not feel at all threatened by him. If she had to describe how she was feeling when he looked at her she would have to say safe. He wasn't assuming, or judgmental, or even analyzing her, he was just there, letting her adjust to his presence. And while it should have sufficiently sent off alarm bells in her head, for some reason she still felt safe.

"Who are you?" Felicity asked again, only this time with more awe and less suspicion.

"My name, Ms. Smoak, is Deucalion, and I do believe we have much to talk about."


	2. Three Sides to Every Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Felicity, is something bothering you?" Oliver tentatively asked.
> 
> OR
> 
> The time where Oliver notices Felicity hasn't rambled in a while and lets his curiosity get the best of him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Reviews are amazing and receiving them is the highlight of my day, however I also feel very self conscious about leaving reviews to other people's works, so I understand if you don't review. That being said, keep the faith all will still be explained. Takes place after Roy discovers Sara/Canary beating up the bad guys in the glades the first time, so the very end of S2 E1?
> 
> Italics = Felicity's conversation with Deucalion after/during deliciously edible breakfast
> 
> normal = Felicity's conversation with Oliver in Verdant's basement (or is it the Arrow's lair? I don't know) two days after the before mentioned breakfast.

_"What do you know about your parents Ms. Smoak?" Deucalion asked._

_"My mother gave full custody rights to my aunt and uncle after my father's disappearance," Felicity admitted. "I know that a fire killed my mother and most of her family. I know that if it were not for my younger sister Laura's murder, my brother and I would not be on speaking terms."_

_"Focus on your parents, Ms. Smoak," Deucalion chided._

_"I know my mother hated her job and my father loved his. I know that my father kept secrets from my uncle regarding his job. And I know the only real birthday present I ever got from my mother was put into the family vault, which I am not allowed access to."_

_"Do you know why you weren't given access?"_

_"No, I just told Laura to put it where I would never be able to find it. The family vault seemed like the best place," Felicity sighed. "What is the point in all of this? The only family I ever cared about was murdered, and you show up here like I should know you, talking about parent's I never even met and going on about some stupid inheritance bull shit. Whatever it is I don't want it, so just give it to Derek and get out of my house."_

_"Ms. Smoak, I'm going to ask you something that is going to sound crazy, but I assure you that it is very real and very dangerous. Were you ever told about werewolves when you were a child?"_

* * *

"Felicity, do you want to talk about what's bothering you?" Oliver asked.

"Hmm?" the techie questioned.

* * *

_"Of course I know about werewolves; almost every person on the planet knows what a werewolf is. You'd have to live under a rock to not know."_

_"That's not what I asked. Did your aunt and uncle or your younger siblings ever tell you about werewolves? Do you remember any of them specifically sitting you down and telling you about werewolves or packs or even magic or the supernatural?"_

_Felicity shook her head and scoffed. "I think you need to leave, leave and never come here or talk to me again."_

_"I wish things were that simple, Ms. Smoak," Deucalion told her. "But someone has to warn you about what you're up against."_

_"What the hell is that supposed to mean? What am I up against, besides a stranger who has entered my home talking about people I never knew and things that aren't real?"_

_"If they're not real, then what do you call those?" he asked, pointing to her hands, which were now sporting claws and been effectively driven into the dining room table._

* * *

"We're friends and I've known you long enough to know that you hate silence. So the fact that you haven't said a single word in three hours, not even to curse at the computers under your breath, leads me to believe that something is bothering you. So I'm asking as your friend, do you want to talk?" Oliver asked.

* * *

_Felicity moved her hands and fingers, taking small chips out of the table top when her claws were moved. She stared at her hands in wonder and shock, wanting to blink and have everything go back to normal, but when she opened her eyes again and again, nothing changed. She still had claws, Deucalion was still in her home, and she really had taken chunks out of her tabletop._

_"The reason your mother gave full custody to your aunt and uncle is because she was a werewolf, just like your siblings, your grandparents, the rest of your mother's family, and your father. She was scared that since you weren't a wolf your grandfather would try and kill you, and after what he did to your father, she had a very real reason to be."_

* * *

"My family life is complicated," Felicity began. "And I feel I should properly warn you before you open up this very large can of worms you happen to be holding, because once I begin to start talking I probably won't stop for at least thirty minutes."

"Then it's a good thing I've got a few hours," Oliver told her. "So, what's on your mind?"

* * *

_"What am I?" Felicity asked. "If I'm not a werewolf, then what am I? Why do I have claws? Why don't I need my glasses? What made me so dangerous that I couldn't stay with her?"_

_"Ms. Smoak, despite what your mother was led to believe, what we had all been led to believe, you are in fact a werewolf, an alpha werewolf of enormous power," he told her. "The fact that you are shifting instinctually, your senses have been sharpened, and your current eye color has changed all indicate that something was done to you, something unfathomable."_

_"What, did some shaman mess up a spirit reading or something? Or do you have doctors for these things?"_

_"What it means is that your grandfather attempted to have you and your parents murdered, and for us, for our people, attempting to sever your own line of succession without cause is the worst crime we can commit."_

* * *

Felicity took a large breath and let it out slowly, almost wanting to question as to why she felt the sudden urge to confide in Oliver, but decided that he was right and they were friends and she definitely needed to talk to someone. "Have I ever mentioned the fact that I was adopted?"

Oliver shook his head back and forth, but made a motion with his hand that signified she should continue.

* * *

_"You wouldn't remember this, but I was the one who delivered you to your father's relatives, and I periodically checked on you until you turned five," Deucalion began. "Well, the family members who were not involved in the supernatural aspects of the world. Your father, Martin, was an emissary, he was training when we first met as children."_

_"Emissaries provide two important roles in a wolf pack, one is to provide council to all the wolves, not just the alpha, to help them lead and grow not only as individuals, but as a pack, a single cohesive unit. The second role is so wolves do not grow arrogant in their abilities. While it is true we have many strengths, we also have many weaknesses like mountain ash and wolf's bane, the emissary reminds us that balance is more important than power. They are the constant reminder that while wolves are stronger and faster, that does not make them better, because only humans can use magic, and it is that magic that makes every species unique and defines what they are."_

_"The idea at the time was for us, your father and I, to train together so we would bond not only as comrades and allies but as friends. We grew up together, like brothers, and while we knew that neither of us was truly better than the other, we realized that we each had different roles. But like all life's events, nothing ever goes as planned."_

* * *

"My Godfather, Deucalion, dropped me off at my aunt and uncle's house when I was a month old, with a letter from my mother explaining that she didn't believe it would be safe for me to stay with her family that she feared for my life" Felicity explained.

* * *

_"When we were in law school things changed," Deucalion admitted. "There was a summit between the packs and we were both expected to attend, that's where your parents met. I was my father's second at the time, his heir. I knew of the other alphas and their seconds, having met them all a few times before, but this was the first time all of us were in the same room. It wasn't customary for emissaries to actively engage in the affairs of other packs, their counsel was always freely given to those who asked, but for an emissary to ignore their own pack's well being in favor of another's was dishonorable. That being said, Martin was his usual late and charming self." Deucalion laughed and shook his head at the memories; pausing his narrative for a moment to reflect and reminisce. "He didn't know anyone at the summit besides the emissaries he had gone to primary school with and the pack he had been raised by. He relied on me to not mess up my colleagues identities just as I relied on him not to mess up on his."_

_"Your mother, Talia, was a second, just as I was, and while we had met and got along, we knew we weren't romantically compatible. Female wolves, especially alpha females, are often said to have the ability to recognize their mates instantly, sometimes before they've even met, and once a mated pair has met they will never separate willingly. That being said, for your father anyways, it was very much love at first sight. Naturally they spent the rest of the night and most of the morning only paying attention to each other, talking and dancing just getting to know one another. They were the last ones in the room when the party ended at one am, and then six hours later I had to drag both of them to breakfast, because they still hadn't left the room. It was obvious by the time everyone was eating the next morning what had happened."_

* * *

"My aunt and uncle didn't know the specifics of my parent's marriage, other than the fact my parents were head over heels and my mother's family, specifically my grandfather Isaiah, didn't approve."

* * *

_"It's taboo in our culture to fight a mated pairing," Deucalion explained to her. "History has shown us that it doesn't end well for anyone involved, the more extreme cases ending in multiple pack massacres, and in one extreme case the slaughter of an entire town and its inhabitants, so when your mother's father, Isaiah, objected to the union he was facing mutiny from his own pack but also banishment should he act. He did however, have the right to make his objections known, which he did, loudly and repeatedly. This made your father all the more determined to get your grandfather's blessing. His final attempt was what got him killed."_

_"The packs at the summit had already accepted your parent's union, by pack law their union had been accepted and that was what mattered to our people. Despite knowing that, your father was determined to get Isaiah's blessing so, shortly after your mother found out she was pregnant with you, Isaiah told him if he became a wolf he would provide his blessing. Isaiah led us to believe that your father didn't survive, that his body had rejected being turned, and when you were born we assumed that Isaiah was telling the truth because we believed you hadn't been born a wolf. And while there was nothing wrong with you being a human, at that point we knew enough about genetics and biology to know that there was the possibility the trait wouldn't be handed down, and while it was archaic thinking to believe that having a human heir would make the pack weak, enough people believed for it to be an issue. Since your father had already died, there was no possibility of another heir from his bloodline, and unfortunately poor timing and fear forced your mother's hand."_

_"What does that have to do with him wanting to kill my parents?" Felicity asked. "What does any of this have to do with anything?"_

_"A human cannot become an alpha werewolf," he said. "There is no such thing as an instant alpha. All wolves, either turned or born, are automatically betas or omegas; becoming an alpha is something one earns. You would not be an alpha right now if you were not born a wolf, which means that Isaiah lied. It means your father was murdered, and your mother was most likely poisoned while she was pregnant with you."_

_"I told you that your father wanted Isaiah's blessing. It's not a guaranteed thing to be turned into a werewolf. There are a few factors, the most significant being age, and while it is true genetics do play a part, one thing is absolute, if you are human and you do not turn you die. When Isaiah returned alone, he claimed your father hadn't turned, that he had died rejecting the change. Some of the pack members didn't believe him, myself and your mother among them, but when you were born most of that doubt subsided. The belief that you were human was enough proof to the others that Martin had rejected the change."_

_"Isaiah must have been planning things for quite some time in order to have gotten away with it. Everything that happened after your father's death would have had to be carefully orchestrated, because any single detail being leaked or shared with another pack would've been a death sentence for Isaiah. And while I can think of a number of ways Isaiah could've been able to pass you off as human as an infant, all of them would've ended with Talia dying shortly after childbirth. I can only assume that your mother being a full wolf is what allowed her to survive."_

_"What's a full wolf?" Felicity asked._

_"A full wolf is a rare form of werewolf that literally has the ability to turn into an actual wolf. It's considered an honor for someone to possess the ability to truly and completely change from one form to another. Most werewolves have what is known as a hybrid form, a half form if you will. It's where we take on certain aspects of wolves while still maintaining most of our human characteristics: claws, fangs, eye color, enhanced senses, and our often animal like natures. We tend to resemble the traditional werewolf from many different cultures folklore, appearing as a monster, or a mix between the two."_

_"After you were born your mother believed that Isaiah was going to turn you on your first full moon and if you were human and he had in fact attempted to turn you, it most likely have resulted in your death. While at the time it wasn't considered wrong to have a human child born from a werewolf, Isaiah was raised to believe that wolves were superior to humans, a belief that was shared among a select few of the alphas. Talia knew her father wouldn't stand for having a human in his pack, and since he had attempted to turn other infants before she most likely assumed he would do the same to you. The turn rate for children under four is five percent. We didn't have the exact numbers then, but your mother knew it was a death sentence."_

_"It was no secret your mother didn't want to be an alpha. In fact your grandparents had been trying to have more children for years, but when your mother became of age and she was still an only child she was forced to be the next in line. She didn't want you to be forced into anything you didn't want. She wanted you to be able to have a choice in your future and while she wanted nothing more than to raise you herself she knew you would be safer with your father's family, so the night before the full moon she snuck you out of the house and once she was over the territory line she had me take you to your father's relatives. They lived on neutral ground, and besides knowing of our existence they weren't involved in our affairs, meaning that once you were on their property, Isaiah had no claim over you. Your mother loved you so much, that she would rather see you happy and safe with people she barely knew than have you die. I know you've probably heard this part before, but you meant the world to your mother. She never forgave Isaiah, and she often said giving you up was the hardest thing she'd ever done."_

* * *

"They agreed to take me in, no questions asked; the only thing my mother wanted was for me to know that she loved me. It never bothered me that I was adopted, my aunt and uncle loved me but aside from my Godfather I knew next to nothing about any other member of my family until I entered kindergarten."

* * *

_"I was your only contact between you and your mother for the first few years, but when I became alpha of my own pack it was too dangerous for my visits to continue. Isaiah spun a web of lies about how you had died during your first full moon, so you were safe from your mother's enemies, but if I had continued to visit my enemies and your father's enemies would've found you eventually and they would've killed you. By the time you were three your mother had officially been alpha of the Hale pack for two years, and your younger sister had been born a wolf, so the line of succession was set. That was when your mother left the decision of when to tell you in the hands of your aunt and uncle."_

* * *

"When I was five my aunt gave me my first set of letters, they were from my mom. She had sent me a letter for every month of my life since I had come to stay with my relatives. That was when I realized my mom loved me; that my parents were real people and I wasn't just dropped on my aunt and uncle's doorstep by the stork."

"I spent hours memorizing every word she wrote me, and more than anything I wanted to write back, but like my father, I was very much a perfectionist and I was determined that my first letter would be a masterpiece. It was such a masterpiece that it took two years, and wound up resembling a box full of paper more than an actual letter, mostly because I had decided to send my mom everything. My homework, class worksheets, art projects, crayon drawings, it was a very extensive collection. The letter I received after that was my favorite. That was when she told me about my younger siblings, and sent me pictures of everyone. I never knew someone could take so many baby pictures, and most of them were mine, so I can only imagine how many my mom had of Laura and Derek and Cora. They lived with their dad. One of the reasons that Isiah hated my father was that my mother was betrothed to my sibling's dad before my parents had met. Apparently, my parents did not have my grandfather's blessing but after a very long conversation with the rest of the family, Isaiah knew he'd lost the fight and that they would have gotten married anyway. At that point my mother was set to take over the family business, and being the only heir at the time probably had more to do with his acceptance than anything else. My mom was four month's pregnant when my dad went missing. If Mom ever found out anything definitive about his disappearance she never told me, but she suspected it was foul play. After dad was declared dead my mother was forced back into her engagement, and she never forgave my grandfather for it."

"My family is what you would call old money, very old fashioned, very strict to their code of honor, and as Laura liked to often put it, ass backwards as usual. Right after I was born my grandmother, by some miracle was pregnant again, with a boy. Mom and Isaiah were furious, for completely different reasons. My mom didn't want the business, she hated it, hated everything about it, and especially hated that it kept her from filing for custody of her children. Isaiah was furious because when my mother was pregnant with me he had officially handed over the keys to the kingdom to Mom, and that wasn't something that could be undone. She was head of the family now."

* * *

_"Laura was five when she found your pictures," her godfather admitted. "And she was angry. She had been very vocal about wanting a sister, so when she found out she had one and hadn't been told she was on a warpath. That was the day she cemented her position as second, and Isaiah, who was on his deathbed, was furious. She stormed into the kitchen during lunch and demanded someone drive her to where you lived and bring you home. There was no asking for permission to leave, there was just Laura with a set of car keys in one hand and coat in the other, saying if no one drove her to your aunt and uncle's house she wasn't coming back until she managed to convince you to go with her and the entire time she yelled her eyes were red, the eyes of an alpha. The rest of the family was in shock, and Talia had the biggest smile on her face. For an alpha to claim a human as a pack member takes so much strength and determination when they're an adult and they have formed a strong bond with this person, so for five year old Laura to claim someone she had never even met as a pack member when she was still technically a potential second, much less a child, meant the world Talia. She was so proud, not just of your sister's accomplishment, but what it meant. Your younger sister unknowingly gave you your freedom not just to choose your future and still guarantee your family's acceptance, but she guaranteed your safety as a Hale, which meant if you wanted to, you could stay with them."_

_"Much to Laura's disappointment, it was not as simple as picking you up from your aunt and uncle's house and bringing you to California. Talia felt you were old enough to choose where you wanted to stay, and didn't want to take your options away from you now that your safety was no longer an issue. Then less than a week later you had sent her your reply to Talia's letters, and Laura took it as a sign to commence what became known as 'Operation get Felicity out of Kansas'."_

* * *

"I was seven when Laura sent me a letter. She was barely five and had only just started writing and reading, so it was more of a drawing than anything else, but after that we were thick as thieves. Mom even sent us both phone cards every month so we could call each other every night. Needless to say my aunt and uncle hated when the phone bill arrived, because calling out of state was not cheap, and the phone cards never made it past the one week mark. We still wrote to each other constantly, and Laura kept me updated on all of the family drama so I was always in the loop. It wasn't until after Isaiah died that Derek, my younger brother, decided to contact me and god did he drive Laura and I up the walls. I didn't even live with him and he still pushed all my buttons any chance he got, so I can't imagine what Laura went through. He was such a brat, he used to tell everyone that his favorite activity was aggravating his older sisters and following our uncle Peter everywhere he went. Cora was born shortly after my ninth birthday, Laura was seven and Derek was six. My mom was on bed rest for a large majority of her pregnancy, and did the phone bills increase. With Mom being in bed all day and doctor's orders of no stress, all she did was call us. Thank god we weren't in school, or I think my mother would've demanded for all of us to be pulled out for the soul purpose of making her bed rest more bearable."

"Despite being close with my mom I never actually met her. She had tried in the past to get my siblings and I together at the same time, but that wasn't until Laura, Derek, and I were older, and by then Laura and I were in junior high and we really couldn't afford to take a week off of school. My mother died a week before my eighteenth birthday. Mom had made arrangements for all of us to do something for the occasion, I wasn't supposed to know, but my aunt let it slip two weeks before when I mentioned wanting to stay home for my birthday and not wanting to do anything."

* * *

_"I mentioned earlier, that when you turned eighteen you would've had the option of meeting Talia, however I have come to suspect this wasn't news to you. I was aware of your correspondence, but I wasn't certain of what she had told you. But you deserve to know the truth, given the circumstances. As far as I knew she was planning on asking you to stay with her, she was going to tell you everything, but she wasn't stupid, she had a back-up plan for everything. She wanted me to deliver a letter to you in case you ever did become an alpha. I would like to believe that she would like the current set of circumstances better than what she had originally imagined, mostly due to the fact you still have family to go to for help; you are not alone." He placed a yellowed envelope on Felicity's kitchen table with her name written on it in what she knew to be her mother's writing._

* * *

"There was a fire, and it killed everyone except for Cora and our uncle, Peter. They never found Cora's remains so she was declared missing and then subsequently declared dead two years later. It wasn't until about a month ago I learned she was still alive, and had been living in South America with some family friends. As for Peter, he was in a coma for six years because of the severity of the burns. Laura and Derek were both at school when it happened."

"I chose not to go to the funeral. It seemed less real that way, like the fire hadn't actually happened. That didn't stop Laura though. She showed up on my aunt's porch the day of my birthday with the biggest trunk I had ever seen. Apparently we all had one that we were going to get on our eighteenth birthdays. To this day I still don't know what's in it. And it was the best and worst birthday all rolled into one."

* * *

_"I have left my contact information on your refrigerator should you ever need any assistance," he told her. "If you are anything like your father, you will no doubt use this information to perform a proper background check and verify certain details of what I have told you with your relatives, both human and wolf. I can only hope that what I've told you will bring you some sort of peace and acceptance with the challenges you find in front of you." He got up from his chair, and deposited his dirty dishes in the sink before handing Felicity her house key, and heading towards the door. "Just one more small piece of advice, might I suggest a new hiding place for your spare key. You never can be too careful about security these days."_

* * *

"I don't know why I'm telling you all of this," Felicity admitted.

"Maybe you just needed to tell someone about it?"

* * *

_"What?" Felicity questioned in confusion before deciding to follow after the stranger who was, apparently, family. "Hey! Wait a second!" She got up and grabbed the stranger's arm in order to get him to stop. "You do realize that you just shattered every single thing I thought I knew for the past twenty-six years? You don't get to just throw a boulder through a stained glass window and walk away. I have questions, questions that I would really like answers to, like what the hell is happening to me? And how do you know all of this stuff?"_

_"Ms. Smoak as I have explained, you are a werewolf. Your mother's entire family consisted of werewolves, and a large majority of your father's family was dedicated to helping werewolves and keeping them safe," Deucalion said. "And while I admit I do not know what Isaiah did to you or if there will be any lasting side effects now that your abilities are active, I do know on the next full moon you will turn, and there is a very large chance you will lose control and kill. I am warning you that if you do not contact one of your siblings for help you will regret it."_

_"You mean Derek? The brother I've never even seen and haven't spoken to more than twice in the past seven years? Because I'm not sure if you got the memo or not but my brother will not talk to me, he has made it very clear, despite my large number of attempts to communicate with him. He didn't even call me until a month after Laura died, and by then the cops and reporters had already beat him to it! How in the hell am I supposed to get him to help me?"_

_"There is another option," Deucalion admitted. "Scott McCall is your brother's alpha. Like you he has recently become an alpha and he has helped other betas in the past. If you were to contact him he could also train you. However, it would mean communicating with your family and announcing yourself as the new Hale alpha. It's not an ideal situation with your uncle living in the area, but it is the only other option I can honestly say would be safe. Going to any other packs would jeopardize your safety, if not from other alphas, then from other ambitious pack members."_

* * *

"I don't know, maybe it's just that the stress is too much. I never even dreamed I would take over for my mother. Hell, I grew up believing that I would never take over. She didn't even want any of us to take over, but Isaiah was insistent on one of us learning how to lead. Laura volunteered, unintentionally, but it still happened. I guess when Laura died, it never occurred to me that I might have to take over, and now Derek stepped down and Peter is practically psychotic and Cora is in High School for fuck's sake, and now I'm only one left and I don't have a choice."

"What exactly did your mother do?" Oliver asked.

* * *

_"Why couldn't you train me?" Felicity asked._

_"Ms. Smoak my past is not pleasant, to say the least," Deucalion admitted. "There was a time when I was what your father called a good man and a good alpha. However, those days are long behind me. These past several years I have made selfish decisions, put my own well being above my packs; made enemies out of everyone I have come across and sought only power. I swore to your parents to protect and watch over you, which I've done. Your mother made me swear to inform you of your birth right, which I have also done. And now I find myself in debt to your brother and his alpha for sparing my life and looking past the monster I had become, to see the man I once was and giving me a chance to change. What you ask could mean the beginning of the end for me. I am not naive or stupid; I know that while I would never knowingly hurt you, there is the possibility that I would train you to be what your mother truly feared. You are asking me to walk a very fine line and should I trip and fall, it will not be just me who I condemn but you as well."_

* * *

Felicity wanted to tell Oliver the truth, tell him that her mother was a prominent leader in the supernatural community, because she was a well-respected alpha werewolf. That her siblings had been raised by a pack instead of a family, and that her father had attempted to appease her grandfather by becoming a wolf, despite being a powerful druid and well renowned emissary.

"If I told you now, you wouldn't believe me," she answered. "And it's not that I don't trust you, it's because I haven't exactly come to terms with all of the obligations associated with my position. I promise to tell you, I just have to figure out how to deal with it myself first. And I swear it's nothing illegal."

* * *

_"Those who do not recognize temptation when they look it in the eye are the ones who you know will fall victim to its treacheries. It's the people who see the world for what it is that should truly not be afraid of the approaching horizon and who it brings," Felicity said. "Because all they need is a steady hand to help guide them through the storm."_

_For a second she thought Deucalion was going to continue to walk out the door and she would never see him again, that he wouldn't recognize the significance of what she had said. Instead the man shook his head and smiled. "Where did you hear that, Ms. Smoak?"_

_"I may not have been raised by my father, but I know what he believed in," Felicity answered. "And while the only things I have from him are a faded photograph and a tattered notebook, I know he would want you to train me in the absence of my mother, because he believed in you. And I would have to be blind to not see that despite your flaws and mistakes you are still the person my father considered family. My uncle always told me my dad was the most stubborn person in the world, and while it meant he could be a bit of a jackass, it didn't make what he said wrong."_

_"How is it a man who has been dead more than a quarter of a century can still knock me flat on my back?" Deucalion chuckled._

* * *

"Do you like it, the work you've taken over for your mom, I mean?"

"I don't know yet, I have to get through the basics first."

"Do you think you could like it?" Oliver questioned.

"Possibly? I never even thought about it before Deucalion told me I was next in line. How do you handle everything?"

"Honestly, I'm still just trying not to drown in the deep end."

"I don't suppose you could loan me a life preserver?"

"You won't need one," he told her. "If they have any common sense they'll realize you're a force to be reckoned with and they'll fall in line. You're a natural born swimmer; all you have to do is jump in the water."

* * *

_"So… where do we start?" Felicity asked._


	3. The First Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity's first full moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still not sure I like how this chapter turned out, but a part of me felt like I needed to get out of the second season premiere, so we're are jumping ahead! Mid S2 E5. Oliver Knows Sara is a member of the league of Assassins. Sara's met the team. Officer Lance does not know Sara is alive yet. And holy cow this chapter is longer than the first and second chapters combined. Also, I had a scene written out where Oliver meets Derek, Cora, and Peter, but like I said I wanted to move forward more. It might be used for a flashback. It seems like a waste to not use it at all. Also, posting three chapters in one night is never ever going to happen again. I just forgot that I forgot to originally post this fic on this site. So without further delay or stalling... Enjoy.

“Felicity?”

“ _Felicity_?”

“FELICITY!” Oliver yelled.

“Did you say something?” Felicity asked, slowly turning her head to face her friend and colleague.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for five minutes,” Oliver told her.

“I’m sorry, I just have a lot on my mind right now, mostly family stuff, but nothing too major, so not worry worthy,” Felicity blabbed. “What was it you were trying to tell me?”

“I said there’s someone upstairs named Deucalion looking for you,” he repeated.

“Deucalion? Why would he be- Oh My God is that the time! I’m late!” Felicity quickly jumped up from her seat gathered her paperwork into a pile and rushed up the stairs trying to keep it all from falling. “I am so sorry,” she apologized when she noticed her mentor/godfather casually leaning against the bar with his walking stick dangling from his grasp like it wasn’t actually needed.

“Twenty-three minutes, Ms. Smoak. Cutting it a little close today, aren’t we?” Yet he made no effort to move towards the door and continued to lean against the bar.

“C’mon,” Felicity said heading towards the exit. “You’re the one that said I was cutting it close, so let’s move.”

“Ms. Smoak I do believe you are forgetting three very important things.”

“No I’m not,” Felicity replied. “I’ve got my coat, my paperwork, my glasses what else do I need?”

“What else, indeed,” Deucalion smiled. Felicity just looked at him like he was crazy, and he sighed. “Ms. Smoak, while it’s true I did advise you to learn from your colleagues, both past and present, I was not, in fact, referring to Kali’s particularly strange habit of not wearing proper footwear.” He pointed down to Felicity’s stocking clad feet and her eyes widened in realization.

“My shoes!” She hissed before scrambling back down the stairs to gather the heels she normally discarded underneath her desk.

“I don’t believe we’ve met, I’m Oliver,” He greeted the apparently blind stranger, if the man’s sunglasses and walking stick were any indication.

“Ah, yes, Mr. Queen,” Deucalion smiled, offering his arm out to shake Oliver’s hand. “Ms. Smoak speaks very highly of you. Deucalion, I’m Felicity’s godfather.”

“What brings you to Starling City Mr. Deucalion?” the archer asked.

“Business and family,” the alpha answered. “I’m in the law field and I had a few cases in the area. I felt I should check up on Ms. Smoak while I was in town. I, actually, just recently returned from visiting her younger siblings.”

“She rarely talks about her siblings,” Oliver replied. “It’s good to know she has family who can help her. I can barely deal with my younger sister sometimes, so I can’t imagine having more than one.”

“Talia had four children, three daughters and one son, Felicity being the oldest. They were always a quiet bunch, getting them to open up about anything personal was like pulling teeth,” he noted. “And it still is, oddly enough.”

“Ok, now I’m ready, let’s go,” Felicity said, smile on her face.

“Your bag and tablet, Ms. Smoak,” the older wolf reminded her without even turning around.

“Damnit!” she cursed turning around and going back down the stairs.

“She’s a carbon copy of her father sometimes,” Deucalion laughed. “The man was brilliant at everything he did, with the exception of being punctual. Anytime you needed him somewhere you’d have to tell him it started twenty minutes earlier.”

“You must be good friend’s to know her parent’s so well,” Oliver said.

“Our families have known each other for a long time. Her father and I were close friends since childhood,” he admitted. “Martin was a good man, and he would’ve made a great leader, had he been allowed more time.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware he had passed,” the younger man apologized.

“It’s quite alright Mr. Queen,” the alpha assured him. “No harm done. Need I remind you that we are on bit of a schedule Ms. Smoak?!”

“I know! I know!” Felicity said, making her way back up the stairs. “Car ride of uncomfortable silence, with ten hours of frantic pacing instead of getting sleep, followed by eight hours of unbearable agony and what you have lovingly described as some weird soul searching followed by some sort of rite of passage through mutual understanding thing. We’re late.”

Oliver did a double take at the words ‘unbearable agony’ and looked at Felicity questioningly.

“It’s a joke Oliver,” Felicity told him. “Family camping trip? Long hikes on the side of a mountain and through the wildlife preserve with people who know exactly which buttons to push at the worst times along with weird camp fire songs and stories accompanied by the forging of stronger familial bonds? Is any of this ringing any bells?”

“Yeah, no, I just forgot you mentioned it,” Oliver stammered. “Have a good weekend. It was nice meeting you Mr. Deucalion.”

“Mr. Queen,” Deucalion nodded as they made their way out of the empty club. Once he was certain Oliver was out of earshot, he looked pointedly at his pupil, “Family camping trip? I wasn’t aware we were hiring a shaman or even contacting an emissary to commune with the spirit realm.”

“Oliver knows enough about my background to realize when I used the word ‘family’ I meant the ones who are alive and currently speaking to me.”

“He does, does he? Then why would he bring up your father so casually?” the older alpha challenged. “Or feint surprise at hearing the man had died? Or lie about being oblivious?”

“Did you ever consider that he might not like or trust you?” Felicity asked. “And that telling lies was his way of figuring out whether or not you were telling the truth.”

“I wasn’t aware I was supposed to be seeking his approval, if anything he should be seeking my approval.”

“Because you’ve been a prevalent fixture in my life for the past twenty years,” she replied with an eyebrow raised.

“Admittedly, I have been more of a never noticed background figure, but in the interest of your safety I have kept you out of some of my messier indiscretions,” he replied.

“Is that what you’re calling the pile of dead werewolves you have buried in your backyard?”

“For an alpha who is rather determined to not lose control and kill someone, your very blasé about other werewolves dying by my hand,” her mentor noted.

“I can’t go back and change what happened,” Felicity reasoned. “However, I can make sure history does not repeat itself further. You said Derek and Scott gave you a chance, and I’m not going to let you waste it. But you’re never going to get any allies, unless you start learning how to get along with others. And in Oliver’s defense when I ran your background-check it was rather descriptive.”

“Did it mention my disability?”

“Gerard Argent filed assault charges against you and he conveniently forgot to report the fact he shoved flaming arrows into your eye sockets,” Felicity admitted. “Would it be frowned upon if that man just suddenly disappeared off of the face of the earth?”

“Ms. Smoak need I remind you that Gerard Argent is sitting in a nursing home in unbearable agony, hardly able to move or properly function unless another member of our kind momentarily takes away his pain,” her mentor pointed out.

“So that’s a no? Even if I have the perfect place to put him?”

“Yes,” Deucalion answered. “Now, on a completely unrelated note, have you been feeling different recently?”

“It’s the day before a full moon,” Felicity dead panned. “You told me my emotions would be all over the place and I barely got four hours of sleep.”

“Aside from the moon’s sway,” Deucalion clarified. “Over protective, more worried, anxious?”

“What are you hinting at?”

“I think you might want to consider revealing your-self to Mr. Queen,” he advised. “When I was speaking with him I noticed that your scents had merged.”

“How?”

“I believe that you have claimed Mr. Queen as pack.”

“No,” Felicity denied. “No pack here, just two omegas walking to their cars.”

“Just because you desperately want to believe that something is true doesn’t make it so,” Deucalion told her. “When you became an alpha, this became a part of your territory making what happens here when it comes to protecting Starling City your responsibility. A responsibility you were shouldering already, by helping Mr. Queen. You work together, you train together, you help each other; by that definition you are essentially a pack.”

“Stop saying that.”

“Ms. Smoak it is juvenile to deny yourself this comfort, this life line that can keep you anchored and help you to be a better leader. One does not become an omega out of choice. We are not solitary creatures and that is a fact you are going to have to deal with. I think it would be wise to tell Mr. Queen the truth, so he can prepare himself when the time comes. He shouldn’t have to face something he’s not prepared for because you’ve been keeping relevant information from him.” 

“It’s not like I could just tell him I’m a werewolf and I’m going to be chaining myself up in the basement until I can learn control on the full moon,” Felicity argued.

“You could,” her mentor admitted. “It would save a great deal of time and limit the number of lies you’ve told him thus far.”

“Why are you pushing this?”

“Because even when I was at my absolute worst I still felt the pull of pack, I still had others helping me that I knew I could count on, and while I admit I was not worthy of their loyalty I still found it comforting.”

“If it’s normal for us to have a pack, then why don’t you have one? From what you’ve told me, having a pack only invites more pain. When Laura and Mom died it was almost unbearable, and I wasn’t pack, and if being pack makes it hurt that much more, maybe I don’t want one,” Felicity reasoned.

“Ms. Smoak I can understand your reasoning,” Deucalion began. “But did it ever occur to you that the reason you were so strongly affected by your mother and your sister’s deaths was because they had already claimed you?”

“Don’t,” Felicity replied. “Don’t say that.”

“If Talia had asked you to move back to Beacon Hills to live with them on your birthday, what would you have said?” Deucalion pushed. “You knew she was going to ask, so at some point you had to have thought about your answer.”

“It wasn’t an easy choice to make.”

“But you did decide,” Deucalion determined.

“I would’ve said yes,” Felicity admitted. “If Mom had asked I would’ve said yes, but she didn’t. She didn’t ask because she was dead and the only other people I could talk to either weren’t willing to speak to me or lying to my face. So why does my answer matter?”

“Because when the choice was put in front of you, you chose your family. You chose to accept the bond and that acceptance cemented your place as a pack member. I told you when Laura was five she claimed you, what I didn’t tell you was that in order for a pack bond to form both parties must choose whether to accept that claim. It didn’t matter, when you agreed or even if you said it out loud, you knew your decision. Just like when Mr. Queen needed help you gave it to him. He didn’t force you to help him, he came to you and asked and you agreed. And even though you can change your mind, that bond will always be there. It may diminish over time, but it will never disappear, not even in death.”

“Maybe I like being alone?!” The blonde snapped. “Maybe I’m more comfortable keeping my secret to myself. I am tired of getting used to having people in my life, and then having my world turned upside down when they die.”

“You can’t protect yourself from life Ms. Smoak,” he pointed out. “And while what you’re saying is true, your life won’t be very happy if you continue this way.”

The younger Alpha sighed and hung her head for a minute, knowing that her mentor was giving sound advice even if it wasn’t what she wanted to hear. “I’ll tell him,” Felicity told her mentor. “I will, just not the day before my first full moon when there are many more to come,” she explained. “I need time to figure out what to say and once I learn control it will be easier to explain anyways. Besides, then I won’t have to worry about accidentally scratching him.”

“Very few humans ever get turned by scratch anymore; the attack to turn ratio is nearly nonexistent,” he commented, trying to lighten the mood.             

“Because you killed them? Or because you bit them afterwards?”

“I resent that implication Ms. Smoak.” Deucalion declared. “I have always tried to keep the human casualty rate at a minimum, something I would think you appreciated.”

“I would be much more accepting and appreciative, if you limited the number of casualties in general, and not just in the human category,” Felicity informed him.

“Yes, well we can’t all be saints now, can we?”

* * *

 

“Wouldn’t it just be easier to ask Felicity to do that for you when she comes back from her camping trip?” Diggle asked his friend/boss, when he noticed that Oliver was trying to hack into a federal database to access information.

Oliver quickly shrunk the contents of the window he was working at and turned to face his friend. “I need the practice.”

“Uh huh,” Diggle nodded, skepticism clearly expressed in his facial features. “You know, for someone who can fool a polygraph, you’re horrible at improvisation. You want to tell me why you were trying to hack into the FBI criminal database?”

“I can’t,” Oliver ground out.

“Can’t or won’t?” John questioned. When Oliver didn’t immediately respond to his query he decided to show one of the cards he was holding and hope the opening created by the piece of information he was offering was enough to convince the guarded man to trust him with his personal problems. “Lycaon. His last name is Lycaon. Deucalion is his first name, not his last. Now maybe you can tell me why you’re so keen on looking up a blind recluse.”

“He was in the club earlier,” Oliver admitted. “Something about him seemed off when I spoke to him.”

“And none of this has anything to do with his queries into Queen Consolidated?”

“No,” Oliver said. “He’s taken an interest in Felicity?”

“Well, I can tell you it’s probably not what you’re thinking,” Diggle told him. “Deucalion’s father, Marius Lycaon had two heirs to his empire, one his protégé and biological son, who you’ve met, and the other his advisor and son’s best friend, Samuel.”

“Marius? Why do I know that name?” Oliver asked.

“Probably because at one point Marius had every public and privately owned company in his pocket on the east coast,” he answered. “It took his family fifty years but he was said to have his hands in everything from the northeastern point of Maine to the Florida Keyes at one point, but for a very involved man he rarely got invested personally unless there was a conflict between two parties. He knew everything about the government and the corporations and the people living on the entire east coast, but he never used any of the information to his personal advantage. He liked to call himself the mediator. He knew exactly what to do to give both parties involved exactly what they needed, but still kept everyone relatively equal when it came to power.”

“And when he died Deucalion challenged this advisor for the keys to the kingdom,” Oliver guessed.

“Actually, no,” John told him. “Deucalion and Samuel were supposed to take over together. They were each trained from a young age to take over certain responsibilities as equals, a partnership. They were inseparable as children, practically brothers, and that friendship continued when they were adults. Both of them went to law school on full scholarships, but they both had separate degrees, one in Computer Science and Engineering and the other in Ancient History. Anyways, they both graduate and are all set to take over when after the first official meeting is held, Samuel does something practically unheard of, he steps down.”

“What do you mean he stepped down?” Oliver questioned.

“Marius had spent almost his entire life building his ‘network’, as he liked to call it,” John explained. “But he never bothered to put every component, or in this case family and major shareholders, in the room with the others at the same time. Samuel met a woman from within the network, they fell in love, and he decided he was going to step down. Almost everyone was thrilled, but unfortunately Samuel’s decision left the infrastructure with a hole to fill. Marius had never considered this before. He had been so busy trying to find a common thread between them all, he didn’t realize he had built a powder keg for any outsider to explode at any time. All of these private companies he had networked together had a common thread, they all followed the same basic traditions, but the fundamentals and logistics were different. Deucalion and Samuel represented two sides of the same coin, that’s why the system worked in the beginning, but when Samuel stepped down the balance shifted and the entire network began to crumble and ultimately imploded fifteen years later.”

“So what does any of this have to do with Felicity?”

“The advisor’s name was Samuel M. Smoak, but his family and friends always referred to him as Martin,” Diggle replied.

“Felicity’s father,” Oliver realized putting the pieces together. “And now that she’s taken over for her mother, she’s reaching out to the only other family member who is in a position to help.”

“If half of what I’ve heard about Deucalion’s relationship with Felicity’s father is true, she’s probably in one of safest places in the entire world,” Diggle said honestly.

“So everything he’s done the past ten years doesn’t bother you?”

“Oh it bothers me,” Diggle told his friend. “I wouldn’t be considered human if his record didn’t bother me, I’m just saying that a person like Deucalion would never do anything to jeopardize the safety of two of the only family members he has left.”

“So how do you know all of this?” the archer questioned. “This stuff probably isn’t public knowledge.”

“That powder keg I mentioned earlier, the one any outsider could explode; I was friends with the person who unknowingly lit the match, a private arms dealer by the name of Christopher Argent. Good man, with a fucked up family.”

“What do you mean?”

“His younger sister Kate was convicted of raping a minor, and then setting fire to the kid’s family home while most of his relatives were locked inside, the only survivor of the accident went on to later rip her and her accomplices’ throats out. And his father, Gerard, shot arrows with lit magnesium flares attached into Deucalion Lycaon’s eye sockets, rendering him completely blind, it was miracle Deucalion even survived.”

“That’s disturbing,” Oliver gulped uncomfortably.

“No, what’s disturbing is every event that happened afterwards. If you think the league of assassins is bad, then you haven’t seen the destruction those two psychofucks can manage in a matter of months,” John told him.

“That still doesn’t justify what this Deucalion Lycaon has done,” Oliver argued.

“I never said it did,” John pointed out. “I’m just saying that the devil you know is a hell of a lot more predictable and easier to face than the one you don’t.”

* * *

 

“Ok, I’ll admit it,” Felicity conceded. “When I asked where we were starting when it came to my training I didn’t think you would actually have a specific geographic location in mind, or that it happened to be on top of a mountain!” Felicity yelled as she struggled up the worn and rocky path her and her godfather had begun hiking up four hours earlier. She was a good fifty feet behind him, and at least fifteen feet below him on the elevation scale. “But did it ever occur to you that maybe starting off at a slower pace would be more beneficial for my mental and physical well-being?”

“You act as if I asked you climb to the peak,” Deucalion told her.

“You’re talking to the person who struggles doing five crunches every morning before her first cup of coffee,” Felicity added.

“Five reps is quite good as far as early morning exercise goes for humans. Most make do with about three from what I’ve noted, but the fact you’re almost doubling the average simply tells me that your wolf genes are slightly more dominant than we were led to believe. Tell, me do you do reps of ten, fifteen, or twenty?” he asked.

“Not five reps,” Felicity corrected. “Five, as in one, two, three four, five and done.”

“Ah. I suppose we’ll have to add that to the list then.”

“What list?” Felicity panted. “And where are we going? We’ve been doing this for four hours, if we’re not going to the top, then where else could we possibly be headed?”

Deucalion stopped and sniffed the air, as if he could smell something specific that she couldn’t. “Just a few more feet now,” he replied. “There should be a shelf near here somewhere. I must admit my eyesight has worsened since my last visit. I imagine it will continue to fluctuate based on the lunar cycles. Since my wolf was completely dormant when my sight was returned to me, by the now deceased Ms. Blake, I can only conclude that as the lunar cycle changes and my wolf continues to grow with the passage of time, that I will be completely blind again by the full moon, and then after it passes as my wolf rests more and more, my eyesight will gradually return until the new moon passes and the cycle repeats and so on and so forth.”

“Not that your system reacting to magic isn’t important, but what exactly does a shelf on a mountain look like?”

“Have you ever stood at the bottom of a cliff and wondered how you were going to get to the top?” Deucalion asked.

“No.”

“It looks like that.”

“How does that tell me anything? I said no. And don’t you think if you took off your sunglasses you would be able to see better? It’s all cloudy and over cast and windy and cold. I can’t imagine seeing the world through rose colored glasses is actually helping you any.”

“I do believe you missed the point of my earlier statement, Ms. Smoak,” he smiled. He placed his pack on the ground and placed some large softball sized rocks in front of it to stop it from rolling down the side, then he began working his way closer and closer and closer to where she was standing without actually lowering his level of elevation, if anything he was increasing it. “Can you see the top?”

“Sort of?” She admitted skeptically. “You could have told me it looked like a giant step.”

“The shelf predates the step Ms. Smoak,” he told her. “When I get to the top of the shelf where we can make camp for the night, I can throw down a rope to pull up the rest of our supplies before you begin to climb.”

“Camp? Climb? Werewolf say what?”

He slowly started making his way up the face of the shelf to the point where he was about five feet under the ledge he stopped working in a diagonal direction and went completely vertical, pulling himself all the way up and sitting on the ledge as if he wasn’t on the edge of a fifty foot drop halfway up a mountain, and was in fact sitting on the edge of a swimming pool simply getting his feet wet.

“Surely you’ve been camping before Ms. Smoak,” he guessed, taking a moment to catch his breath. “Joe and Clara were rather adventurous people before you were born. Martin would always get post cards from all over the world telling stories about their travels, where they were, where they were headed, where they hoped to go. I can’t imagine them not taking you camping.” 

“Why do I get the feeling you and I have very different definitions of the word camping?” Felicity assumed.

* * *

 

“Hello?” a sleepy voice answered a ringing phone automatically.

“I need you to not hang up,” a barely recognizable shaky voice told. “Please, Derek. Please don’t hang up.”

Derek was wide awake once the owner of the voice was properly recognized. “Felicity?”

“I know that now isn’t exactly the best time, considering what day it is, and that it’s the middle of the night, but I didn’t know who else to call. Not with this,” his older sister attempted to explain.

“I won’t,” he swore. “I promise I won’t, but I need you to tell me why you called.”

“I was camping in the preserve, the neutral part, at the spot Mom used to tell us about. I made Deucalion tell me where it was. I went for a run, and I just found him,” Felicity said. “I know what I said when Laura died was wrong, god, do I know it was wrong, but I never wanted it to happen like this.”

“Felicity, calm down,” Derek said. “Just tell me what happened. Ok? Start at the beginning.”

“Tonight is my first full moon,” Felicity told him. “It happened a few weeks ago, the day before the eclipse. I didn’t know what was happening, I remember waking up and I remember the pain, but I didn’t know what it was or even how, and then Deucalion showed up, and then when I asked him to explain it to me afterwards, he said he didn’t know why or how. And it’s not like Mom left behind a self-help guide titled ‘what to do when you discover you’re a werewolf whose wolf has been dormant for twenty-five years.’ He said I could either chain myself up, or run on neutral territory, so I made him take me out here, and somehow I picked up a scent because my wolf followed it here and I dug up part of his corpse.” 

“Calm down, ok? Everything is going to be fine. I just need you to tell me one thing, ok. Who did you find?” Derek asked softly.

“My dad,” she whispered quietly. “I found part of his body.”

“Are you sure?” Derek asked.

“I wouldn’t be calling you if I wasn’t sure, I would be calling the local law enforcement.”

“I need you to tell me exactly where you are in the preserve,” Derek told her. “I’ll get there as fast as I can. Just don’t move, and try not to move him too much.” He was rushing around his room throwing whatever clothing he could find on and running towards the door, keys in hand.

“I’m near the border, on the Beacon Hills side, I think. I didn’t even think I could make it out this far. According to my phone I’m more than ten miles away from my campsite. I never should have come here.”

“I’m barely five minutes away,” Derek told her. “I know the Sheriff; I’ll call him on the way there. You’re going to be ok.”

“Derek, he wasn’t. I don’t think dad was human when he died,” Felicity said. “I can see his claws.”

"Is there anybody else with you?"

"Just Deucalion. He's back at the camp, I told him I probably wouldn't be back for at least a couple of hours."

"Ok, call him and tell him where to find you, we should both get there about the same time. I'm getting in my car now. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Ok."

Derek quickly hit the end call button and dialed Stiles number. "Stiles, is Scott with you?"

"Hello to you too, sour wolf," Stiles groaned. "It's not like I was sleeping or anything important?"

"There was half a body found by the border of the preserve."

"I think I would know if that happened, seeing as how my dad is the sheriff and he hasn't been called in yet," Stiles pointed.

"I'm the one calling it in dumbass," Derek snapped. "This is me calling you and saying wake up Scott and your father and get out to the preserve. I will text you the exact coordinates."

"I don't see why Scott and I have to be there."

“Stiles, the body isn’t human,” Derek told him. “And that’s not the bad part.”

“What’s the bad part?” The teenager had the audacity to ask.

“If Deaton learns that this is the body of who I think it is, people will die,” Derek stated bluntly.

“Wait, hang on. Say that again for me? I thought you just said people are going to die?”

“If Deaton learns that this specific body has been discovered, he will be forced to kill at least three people. I can’t stop him, Scott can’t stop, hunters can’t stop him, the only thing that will stop him is if another alpha kills him. So I need you to get your father and Scott down to the preserve so that doesn’t happen. And that is all the information I can give you right now,” Derek told him. “And you might want to wake Mrs. McCall too.”

“Understood,” Stiles told him, before hanging up.

“Don’t let it be him,” Derek found himself whispering. “Please god, don’t let it be him.”

* * *

 

Felicity was sufficiently numb. She couldn’t feel anything, physically or emotionally. Most of her surroundings were a large blur as unshed tears continued to cloud her vision so bad, that she swore she almost needed her glasses again. She was also fairly certain she looked like what she had heard many people refer to as a hot mess, being covered in dirt and leaves in nothing but a dirty and torn up tank top and now ripped jeans. She had already attempted to pull some of the leaves out of her hair with little success, apparently tripping down a ravine was not good for one’s personal hair style, not that she was known to style her hair, but surprisingly when she had set out with her mentor this morning she had not had her hair up in its usual ponytail. And let’s not forget the fact that she was essentially kneeling on the cold muddy ground surrounded by dead trees in forty degree weather. She was fairly certain that had she still been human she would at least be at risk for hypothermia at this point.

The blonde wasn’t sure how long she stared at the border. She could see the territory line like it had been painted on the ground with white spray paint. She knew she had technically already crossed it, that really it didn’t matter what side of the border she was on anymore, but some part of her was still afraid to cross that line. Some part of her still believed if she didn’t enter Beacon Hills she could still pretend all of this had been some strange weird dream, even if half of the corpse twenty feet away from her was clear evidence that it wasn’t.

She heard the crunching of leaves far off in the distance and assumed it was her brother. “Can you see it, the line? I wasn’t sure if you could see it or not. Is it weird that I still can’t cross the border? That I’m still scared? I know I shouldn’t be, that it’s irrational for me to be afraid of something I’ve technically already done, but that doesn’t mean the fear’s not still there.” She looked around when she didn’t hear her brother respond and when she noticed there wasn’t actually anyone in the immediate vicinity she sighed. “Way to go Smoak, after three years of real world experience and turning into a supernatural creature and you’re still talking to yourself.”

She heard a soft growl behind her, and she quickly spun around. “Oh my god!”

She was met with the sight of a grey coated blue eyed lupine creature standing a few feet behind her, nose twitching as if it may or may not have found her scent interesting. It was slowly and cautiously moving forward; as if it was worried making a sudden movement would make the human bolt. It wasn’t threatening the werewolf; merely watching her with what Felicity assumed was curiosity. The blonde was tempted to hold her hand out and let the creature sniff it, but there was still a part of her mind controlled by her rationality that clearly screamed in her brain that this was a wild animal not her neighbor’s dog.

“Hi,” Felicity whispered tentatively.

The creature’s ears perked up as it tilted its head ever so slightly to the side. After a second of internal debate on the animal’s part, it seemed to have come to the conclusion that this human could be trusted, so it closed the gap and leaned its body against the blonde’s, while trying to lick her in the face.

“Apparently you’re friendly,” Felicity replied, while making a strange face at the foreign sensation of having her face licked and slobbered on. “I don’t suppose you could stop with the tongue thing?” Surprisingly the creature seemed to understand and sat down, choosing instead to nuzzle its nose against Felicity’s arm to get attention. “And you like to be petted? Way to go Felicity, you found the only friendly wild animal in the entire preserve.”

“She knows your sad,” she heard Derek say. Felicity started looking around for her brother’s form, and then she saw him standing twenty feet away, leaning against a tree. “Some of us have this thing with certain animals. It was always wolves with Mom and Laura; I guess you must take after them.”

She sat there for a second, lightly petting the animal before motioning it back to the woods where it came from. “You don’t have it?” Felicity asked turning back around to face her brother. “I seem to remember a rather large chunk of our childhoods consisting of you begging mom for a puppy.” She stood up slowly, so she could at least get a better look at one of her few remaining relatives.

“Are you ok, you kind of look like a mess?” Derek asked, moving closer.

The siblings weren’t really sure how to treat each other yet. Did they pretend the past six years hadn’t happened? Was the other one mad at them? It was all unfamiliar ground for the once close family members.

“Is this the part where we pretend the past six years didn’t happen and we go back to annoying each other or is this when we attempt awkward polite small talk? I’m too disoriented to know what is socially acceptable right now,” she admitted.

“I’m sorry for ignoring you and Laura after the fire,” Derek told her. “And for how I told you about what happened to Peter. I should have been a better brother.”

“I’m sorry for yelling at you after you became the alpha,” Felicity replied. “If it makes you feel any better Moira Queen gave me a really big guilt trip for yelling at you.”

“Didn’t her son almost hit Cora with his car?”

Felicity nodded. “The way she tells it you nearly broke his arm pulling him out of the driver’s seat. I should ask him if he remembers that.”

“Why are you talking to Oliver Queen? When did you even meet the guy?”

“I met Oliver through Walter Steele a few months after he came back from Lian Yu, and we sort of became friends.”

“I thought you hated him?” Derek asked with a small smile.

“I never said I hated him. I said I knew his type,” Felicity replied. “Besides it would be somewhat hypocritical of me to hate him because his parents gave him a trust fund.”

“I’m pretty sure I heard the words ‘womanizing jackass’ came out of your mouth repeatedly, when Mom and Laura mentioned spending the weekend with them.”

“Are we seriously going to have our first real conversation since the fire arguing over my choice of friends, Mr. I hang out with high school teenagers? You forget, the internet knows everything, and I know how to find anything on the internet.”

“We could always discuss your emo phase in college,” he offered.

“Dick.”

“Bitch.”

“Flea bag.”

“I-D-ten-T.”

Felicity started laughing when she realized that her brother actually knew the meaning of the tech insult. “How long did it take you to figure that out,” she snickered.

“I can do more than just glare at people,” he said. “I have a brain too, ok. You and Laura aren’t the only smart ones in the family.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot Cora taught you how to read,” Felicity joked.

“And people wonder why I’m emotionally stunted,” Derek grumbled.

Over the course of their friendly banter, they had momentarily forgotten that they weren’t exactly on the best terms with one another, but as they started gravitating towards each other they realized maybe the past five years didn’t matter as much as they originally thought it did. There were parts of them that hadn’t changed nearly as much as they originally thought, and looking back while they hadn’t had the most conventional upbringing, they still had a fairly normal sibling relationship with each other despite their living situations.

Derek took a closer look at his sister, noting some of the changes that had happened over the five years they hadn’t communicated. Her hair was still dyed blonde, even if it was slightly darker than before. She hadn’t gotten any taller, but the way she held herself was different. She was more confident, and less shy when it came to being secure in her own skin. He wasn’t sure if it had to do with her wolf finally gaining control or something else, but he had a feeling it had nothing to do with her new found family heritage. “You look good,” he told her. “You’re more put together, less on edge.”

“Thanks, I think,” she shrugged. “I’m not really quite sure what to make of the whole supernatural creature bit yet.”

He nodded in understanding, thinking back to the time before the fire, when his control was still shaky and he hadn’t found his anchor. “You can see the border, can’t you,” he guessed. “That’s why you keep looking down, why you were so afraid when you called. You still don’t recognize the land.”

“I recognize it just fine,” she told him. “It just doesn’t recognize me. I’m not a Hale; I’m still just an unwanted omega, an orphan. Even growing up, when I didn’t know the specifics, I always knew I wasn’t like you and mom. I always knew there was a reason I wasn’t allowed to stay. I don’t have that connection to this place that everyone else has.”

“Yes you do. You were born here, on this side of the line,” he argued, indicating the border with his finger. “You were born here, just like every other member of our family, just like Mom, and Laura, and Cora, and I. Even your dad was born here. The Hales have always lived and died on this land, just like Mom, and Gran, and Laura, and my father and your father before him. This land is just as much a part of you as it is every other member of our family. Why do you think you came here? Felicity this is home. This is our home, and it doesn’t matter that most of the memories we have here are horrible, because this is where all the good things happened too. You wouldn’t have run here if a part of you didn’t know that.” 

“Derek, I get what you’re trying to do and I get why this is important to you, but pack bonding wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I called you about finding my dad’s dead body,” his older sister dead panned.

“Are you admitting that the possibility of this situation actually happening crossed your mind at some point?”

“No, but this is eerily similar to a nightmare I had where Peter was chasing us through the woods with a chainsaw laughing manically.”

“You and Cora always had the weirdest nightmares,” he commented. “And for the record, pack bonding isn’t why I want you to cross the border. There’s something I want to show you.” He held out his hand for her to take.

“Derek, if I cross the border it’ll put a price on your head,” she told him.

“You already crossed the border you idiot,” he told her. “And besides, I am capable of taking care of myself for a total of five minutes.”

“Wow, a whole five minutes. You must be a real boy scout to have made it this long,” She scoffed.

“That’s how long it will take Scott to get here with the sheriff,” Derek told her. “Now get over here before I pick you up and carry you over my shoulder.”

“Fine,” she huffed, trying to make it seem like she wasn’t actually worried about crossing the line. She took in a large breath of air and slowly inched her way closer and closer, while the turning in the pit of her stomach worsened. It was ridiculous to think that she was afraid of something that had already happened at least twice before, but somehow her subconscious had convinced her that the world would actually end if she ever voluntarily stepped foot in the town she was born in. Once her left foot was barely onto the other side she felt Derek give her arm a hard tug so she tripped and managed to catch herself, not even bothering worry about anything besides not falling on her ass.

“Told you,” he smirked.

“Alright, what’s so important you dragged me ten feet and nearly made me face plant?”

He waved her in the direction of what she assumed was his car. Some sleek black muscle car, she knew he probably fawned over like a baby, and would never let anyone else touch. Surprisingly enough he went over to the trunk and opened it, pulling something out before tossing it at her. “You might want to put that on, unless you want half of the police department to see you in a ruined tank top.”

She examined what she had surprisingly caught, and was surprised to find a rather large lacrosse hoody with a wolf on it. “You never played lacrosse.”

“I never said it was mine,” Derek smirked.

Felicity just shrugged before throwing the shirt over her head, figuring her brother was using it to try and get a rise out of someone, but went slightly slower than normal, when she felt an odd pain in her left shoulder when she tried to raise her arm up above her shoulder. She thought she heard a pop, before the pain increased drastically, until she put her arm back down. 

“Better?” Derek asked, not having noticed his sister’s injured arm.

“Yep.” The blonde nodded. She wasn’t immediately warmed up, but she noticed that the sweatshirt did cut down the chill, as some of the heat began returning to her extremities. “I like,” she smiled in approval. “You’re totally not getting this back any time soon.” She went over to stand next to him when she saw some type of large wooden chest firmly seated in the bottom of the car’s trunk where the spare tire normally went. “You wanted to show me your 18th birthday present?”

“No, I wanted to show you, this,” he said before unlocking the chest and pulling out a large old leather bound notebook that appeared to be covered in various symbols. “Open it.”

“What is it?” she asked, skeptical to look at something that was clearly personal.

“It’s Mom’s journal from the year I was born,” he told her. “We all have one, you, Laura, even Cora. She made one for each of us. It tells the story of everything that happened while she was pregnant with each of us. Mine’s mostly filled with stories of you and Laura. Laura’s is mostly filled with stories about you, Cora’s is filled with very detailed accounts of every single group phone call we had with each other while mom was on bed rest. She did this for us. She wanted us to know she loved us so much that she wrote down everything we ever told her and every thought and dream she ever had for us, so we would know how she felt. She wanted us to be a family, to know that we would always be there for each other and she did, even when we technically weren’t even really people yet.”

Felicity began flipping through the book, recognizing some of the photos from her own childhood, and even a few she didn’t remember ever being taken. “So what’s in mine?”

“Mom never told us,” he admitted, taking the book back from his sister. “The only reason I know what’s in Laura’s is because I found it when I was going through her stuff after she died. I mailed Cora’s to her guardian in Buenos Aires so she’d have it in case we couldn’t make it to the ceremony for whatever reason. If she hadn’t come back, I was planning on mailing them to you so you could hang onto them. You’re the oldest, so I figured you should have the complete set.”

“Derek, I can’t take this. Mom gave it to you. This is your book.”

“But you’re the one who needs it,” he told her. “I’m not stupid. I know you’re not a beta. You’re the alpha now, and that is the reason she made these. It wasn’t just because she wanted us to know we were loved and we had each other, it was because this was the closest thing she could give us without ruining our memories. She could’ve given us all of the knowledge she had, but then we wouldn’t have any of our feelings anymore. They would have been overwritten by everything that was important to the pack; everything the pack wanted and felt. But we aren’t pack. We’re family, and Mom always said family was the most important.”

Felicity felt a surge of emotion overwhelm her and felt she had no control over her body when she found herself wrapping her arms around her brother’s torso and involuntarily burying her face in his shoulder with a loud sniffle. “I love you, moron.”

 “I love you too, tech junkie,” he replied.

* * *

 

“I thought you said there was a dead body?” Sheriff Stillinski questioned his son as they slowly pulled behind Derek’s car, only to see the man talking to a short blonde in an overly large hoody.

The pair watched in silence as they witnessed the blonde quickly pull Derek into a hug that the man appeared to accept and reciprocate, but before either observer could really question it, the other pair had stopped hugging and the blonde was waving ‘hello’ somewhat awkwardly.

Stiles quickly got out of the passenger seat of his dad’s patrol car and was able to make out the tail end of the questions the blonde was asking.

“Should I know them?”

“Stiles, Sheriff,” Derek greeted with a nod. “Felicity, you remember the Sheriff, and that’s his son Stiles. He’s Scott’s second.”

“It’s nice to see you again, sort of,” she smiled politely at the older man before turning to the teenager. “I’m Felicity, Derek and Cora’s oldest sister.”

“You have another sibling?” Stiles questioned. “Who you’ve never spoken about or mentioned ever?”

“That’s actually my fault,” the blonde admitted. “After Laura died and Derek became the alpha we had a huge fight and I yelled at him. Derek, being Derek took this very personally and thought that I never actually wanted to speak to him again and then Cora announced that she was alive and made us work it out and now we’re not not speaking to each other. Really if we had a line graph showing the various levels of communication we’ve had throughout our lives the past year would be very small and insignificant outlier compared to previous years.”

 “Are you sure you’re related?” Stiles asked. “Because you’ve just said more words in the past five seconds than Derek has the entire time I’ve known him.”

“I’m a nervous talker,” Felicity said. “So I’m assuming you’re here to see the body right?”

“Actually,” Derek said, stopping his sister from saying anything else. “We should wait for Scott.”

“Right,” the blonde replied with a nod. “We should wait until a neutral alpha examines the body and stuff so emissaries don’t go around killing people, because that’s bad, and Deucalion said you had more than one so I can only imagine how much harder it would be keeping both of them contained.”

“Wait,” Stiles paused. “So emissaries going all psycho killer; that’s actually a concern, Derek wasn’t just messing with me?”

“Unfortunately no,” the woman answered. “The situation is very complicated and there are a few options but if an emissary were to find out about this particular body being found in this area they would kill at least four people.”

“Why this body?” the sheriff questioned.

“Because this body is most likely our mother’s mate,” Derek answered.

“Wouldn’t that make him your father?” Stiles asked.

“No,” Derek admitted. “That would make him Felicity’s father. Our mother was forced to remarry for political reasons after his supposed disappearance.”

“I sense a cover up,” the sheriff commented.

“Not really, just good old grandpa being a lying purist murdering psychopath,” Felicity replied. “Oh how I wish I could’ve spat on his corpse, just once.”

“Vindictive much?” Derek questioned.

“Deucalion wouldn’t let me lock Gerard on a remote deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. I really wanted to watch him step on a land mine,” Felicity replied. “I’m sorry, I’m not entirely sure where that came from. I swear I am not normally this prone to violence.”

“However I am entirely sure where that response came from and would like to take this lovely moment to point out a very simple I told you so,” Deucalion stated loudly, before coming out from behind the cover of trees. “Sheriff, Mr. Stillinski.”

“You,” Stiles eyes narrowed on the alpha. “Why is he here?”

“I am the only one who can properly identify the remains,” Deucalion replied. “Since Talia is dead, and we can’t afford to wait two days for a DNA test, you will need another form of identification; I am the last living person who saw Martin alive. I know what he was wearing when he went missing, and I know what he would have carried on him.”

“And you just happened to be here, in the area?” Stiles asked.

“When Felicity called about the body, I told him to come,” Derek admitted. “He’s right. We can’t wait for a DNA test. It’s his job to verify identity, Scott’s job to figure out rank.”

“Why?” the sheriff asked.

“If my father died a werewolf then that means every member of my family born after I was would be illegitimate and be subject to execution,” Felicity replied. “My father was originally an emissary to another pack, he was allowed to change packs when he married our mom and he chose to become a beta, however we were told he died rejecting the bite. If he died a werewolf then, my grandfather covered it up at the least, meaning that Laura, Derek, Cora, and my cousin could be held responsible for his crimes. My father’s replacement would have no choice but to put them to death.”

“That’s fucked up,” Stiles said.

“Which is why we need Scott,” Derek added. “A neutral alpha can pardon past blood debts, meaning no one has to die.”

“Which is why you said not to call Deaton,” Stiles realized.

They all heard another car pull up and Scott stepped out of the driver’s seat of the car with his mother in the passenger seat. “What’s going on?” Scott asked. “What’s he doing here?”

“There’s a body,” Derek replied. “And if it is who we think it is Deucalion needs to be here. He deserves to be here.”

“Who’s is it?” Scott asked.

“My former Lt,” Deucalion admitted. “Martin. We don’t know for sure, but I was the last person to see him alive. If it’s him, I will know.”

“We also need to know if he’s a wolf,” Derek added.

“Then why didn’t you call Deaton. He’s the emissary, he would know.”

“It’s not that simple Scott,” Derek began.

“He’ll kill Derek,” Felicity added suddenly. “Sorry, I’m Felicity, Derek and Cora’s oldest sister. And considering how many family members we have buried in the past, we didn’t want to risk it. We need a neutral party to examine the body, and possibly pardon the remaining members of our family.”

“Why would I need to pardon them?” Scott asked.

“Fucked up werewolf law,” Stiles answered. “At least that’s the gist of it. Apparently Peter wasn’t the only psychopath in the Hale family.”

“So how does this work?” Scott asked.

“You look at the body and determine whether the remains are human,” Derek answered. “Only alphas can see a wolf for what they are, shifted or not. And since Martin was a member of Deucalion’s pack we need a neutral alpha to determine rank.”

“So I just stare at this guy’s corpse?” Scott questioned incredulously.

“His bones,” Felicity corrected. “He’s been dead more than twenty-five years; all that’s left are clothing scraps and bones.”

“What about the pardon thing?”

“If the remains belong to Martin and aren’t human then, you would need to place the remaining members of the Hale family under your protection, which is why Stiles is here, to act as a witness, saying that you’re not being coerced, and then we can officially call it in, and Deaton will tell you about the rest,” Felicity replied.

“That’s it?”

“Yes,” Deucalion answered. “There is a specific phrase you would have to repeat in front of Derek and Stiles, but only if this body does in fact belong to Martin. If it does, then you say two sentences and the rest is left up to the proper authorities, if it doesn’t then we call Dr. Deaton and then notify the proper authorities.”

“So why bring my mom?”

“Because I am an over protective brother,” Derek answered. “Who doesn’t care about his sister’s empty threats because even werewolves are susceptible to hypothermia if they’ve been out in the cold for a long time in wet jeans and a tank top.”

“I’m fine,” Felicity insisted. “I have this lovely borrowed hoody.”

“Then you won’t mind answering Mrs. McCall’s questions,” Derek replied, giving his sister a good natured shove towards the nurse.

The female alpha grumbled before being led a few feet away from the group so she could answer the mother’s questions.

“So you’re Derek’s sister?” Melissa questioned.

“Yep,” the werewolf nodded. “Felicity,” she offered her hand for the woman to shake.

“Melissa McCall, Scott’s mother, R.N. So you want to tell me exactly why you’re covered in dirt?”

“I tripped and fell into the ravine, I think. I don’t remember that much. I was running, and I vaguely remembering digging, and then I found human bones and panicked, which is when I shifted back into a human.”

“Do you remember hitting your head on anything?”

“No. Should I?”

“Well, there are a few cuts on the side of your face,” the nurse told her. “Let me just grab the first aid kit and I’ll clean those up real quick.” The older woman went to the back seat of the car and pulled a first aid kit out from under one of the seats, before getting some bandages and Neosporin.

“There’s a person asleep in the back seat of your car?” Felicity questioned the nurse.

“That’s Scott’s friend Isaac,” Melissa answered. “He falls asleep when he rides in cars; he’s been staying with us for a while.”

“Isn’t that the kid you’re supposed to be looking after?” Felicity yelled loudly. “Did Derek stick this on you? You can be honest and tell me, I will totally make my brother’s life less bearable. If Isaac’s one of Derek’s betas I feel like I should do something, or at least talk to him. He’s pack and that sort of makes me somewhat responsible for him.”

“You would have to talk to Isaac,” Melissa answered after a few seconds hesitation. She carefully began cleaning some of the dried blood off the blonde’s face, from where the more minor of the injuries had already healed.

“Right,” Felicity nodded in understanding before glancing back to the now awake beta. “Why is he looking at me like I just killed a puppy?” He continued to stare at her with this doe eyed expression on his face, clearly communicating he was scared.

“He can be a bit skittish,” Melissa replied. “Especially around new people and in enclosed spaces.”

“I have this overwhelming urge to give him a hug,” Felicity admitted. “I’m sorry, the full moon is sort of making me a little crazy. I swear I’m normally-“ the female werewolf paused when she realized she didn’t really have any particularly positive adjective in mind to describe her personality.

“I think I’m starting to understand,” Melissa told the other woman. “Scott was having some control issues earlier today.” The nurse quickly put some antiseptic on the cuts that were more serious. “So, why don’t you get that hoody off and we can see if you have any injuries.”

“Couldn’t we just pretend that I’m perfectly fine?” Felicity asked somewhat sheepishly.  

“No.”

“I can’t take the hoody off.”

“Do you need a shirt?”

“No, I mean I can’t take the hoody off,” Felicity repeated. “I can’t lift my arm in order to take the hoody off.”

“Isaac, do you mind?” Melissa asked the teen.

Isaac shook his head no and got out of the car to help. He carefully assisted the other woman in getting the garment off, without moving her arm too much. He noticed that the hoody she was wearing was borrowed when he saw his former team mate’s number and last name on the back. “Did Derek give this to you?”

“He had it in his trunk,” Felicity replied. “It’s very comfortable and warm. If it’s yours, I will totally make him wash it and give it back later. But I kind of need to borrow it right now. My brother seems to think I’ll get hypothermia.”

“Why does Derek have Jackson’s hoody?” Isaac questioned out loud.

Melissa began running her fingers over the younger woman’s upper arm, and when she started to lift Felicity’s arm to see how limited the blonde’s range of motion was, she stopped when the female werewolf began saying ‘oww’ repeatedly. She then began lightly touching the other woman’s shoulder and the blonde hissed when too much pressure was applied. “Yep, it’s dislocated,” the nurse said. “It probably happened when you fell. I’m surprised you didn’t feel any pain earlier.”

“Only when I put the hoody on,” she said.

“I’m going to need to reset it.”

“Is it painful? Can it wait?”

“How long has it been like this?” Melissa asked.

“At the most half an hour.” Felicity felt her phone vibrate in her pocket followed by a loud obnoxious police siren, she used as a ringtone. She used her good arm to get her phone and looked at the caller ID. “Really, now you feel like talking,” she sighed before answering. “Hey,” Felicity replied. “What’s the emergency?”

“Not so much an emergency as a question,” John replied. “Where did you out that copy of “Grey’s Anatomy” you got Oliver as a gag gift. I know it’s here somewhere, I just can’t seem to find it.”

“Why exactly are you looking for a giant medical text? Did something happen? Is it you? Sara? Oliver?”

“It’s not what you’re thinking,” John replied with a sigh. “Someone decided they were going to train to keep themselves busy, which is normally fine, but Oliver hasn’t slept in over eighteen hours and he’s been working out for nine of them, so you can probably imagine what happened.”

“No, actually I can’t.” Felicity could hear two voices in the background, one she knew was Oliver and the other she assumed was Sara, criticizing the man for doing something stupid. “What exactly happened?”

“Oliver challenged Sara to see who was faster climbing the salmon ladder,” John said.

“AFTER I SAID NO, AND THAT IT WAS A STUPID IDEA!” Felicity clearly heard Sara add in the background.

“Right,” John agreed. “So Oliver decided to try and show off, and he missed one of the lower rungs and landed on his shoulder, while the bar gave him a concussion, because part of it landed on his head.”

“I DO NOT HAVE A CONCUSSION!” Oliver shot back.

“He’s lucky it wasn’t one of the ends. So on top of a very dislocated shoulder and a probable concussion, he’s exhausted and we have to keep him conscious for the next six hours, because he refuses to get checked out in a hospital. Anyway, we need the book so Sara can use it as a weight to help push his shoulder back into its socket properly,” John explained.

“It’s on top of the main computer, under the lab table, on the left of the main keyboard,” Felicity told him.

“Ok, got it,” Diggle replied.

“Is that even safe, using a heavy book to relocate someone’s shoulder?” The werewolf had purposely pointed the question towards Melissa, despite the fact she was on the phone with her friend.

The nurse had a contemplative look on her face while she considered the question. “Assuming the book was heavy enough, it could be used to maneuver the patient’s arm without straining the other muscles in the arm and shoulder.”

“Who are you talking to?” John asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be camping?”

“I am,” Felicity replied. “I’m receiving minor first aid, because I tripped and fell.”

“It’s one in the morning?” John questioned. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“I am, or I was,” Felicity lied. “I tripped coming back from the bathroom.”

While the alpha werewolf was preoccupied talking to her friend, Melissa was silently instructing Isaac on how to help her reset the blonde’s shoulder. They both had spent the past minutes carefully moving Felicity’s arm slowly in the proper position so that the blonde wouldn’t notice. ‘On three,’ the nurse mouthed. ‘One… Two… Three.’

“SONOFABITCH!” Felicity yelled, when she felt her arm get suddenly shoved back into place. “Why wouldn’t you warn me?!”

“You needed to have your arm as relaxed as possible, and if we had told you we were resetting it you would have tensed in anticipation,” Melissa replied. “Isaac can you get me the seat belt extension from the trunk of the car so Felicity can use it as a sling?”

“That didn’t sound like minor first aid,” John commented, but Felicity didn’t reply.

“You’ll need to keep the stress on your shoulder minimal for the next couple of days at the least. Granted if you heal as fast as Scott does, it might only be one day. Alright, let’s get that hoody back on, and get that shoulder held in place,” Melissa said, helping the blonde by slowly inserting her arm into the sweat shirt sleeve again, and taking the makeshift sling from Isaac. “Any other injuries I should know about.”

“No,” Felicity answered. “I’ll be ok.”

“Really?” the nurse questioned with her best Mom glare.

“I swear I’m fine, just don’t do that again, please,” Felicity replied. “If I’d known I would need my arm reset I would’ve waited to go to the hospital where they had pain killers.”

“Felicity?” John questioned, but by now the blonde had lowered her phone from her ear and had mostly covered the microphone, so the people on the other end couldn’t hear things very clearly.

“You haven’t been a beta long, have you?” Isaac assumed. “Our healing speeds up our metabolism so that over the counter pain killers are virtually ineffective. We burn through them too fast.”

“But I live off Excedrin,” Felicity stated. “I take them every four hours like clockwork.”

“Well, if you weren’t a werewolf, I would likely be treating you for severe liver damage and addiction to over the counter pain medication,” Melissa replied. “Does everyone in your family have self-destructive tendencies?”

Felicity chose to ignore the question and went back to her phone conversation. “Diggle, can I trust that Oliver is fine now?”

“Felicity you do realize that you basically yelled loud enough for everyone to be able to hear you without having to turn my cell on speaker?” Diggle questioned. “And who has severe liver damage and self-destructive tendencies? I only caught about a third of what was being said.”

“Well, considering I wasn’t the person talking, I would say being able to comprehend and hear one third of the dialogue is impressive,” the alpha replied.

Felicity was so preoccupied trying to keep track of her conversation with John, while simultaneously attempting to follow the comments that Melissa and Isaac were making, that she didn’t notice the others had headed over to where she was. Derek and Deucalion walked up behind her. Derek lightly set a hand on his sister’s shoulder to grab her attention. She spun around phone in one hand, and her opposite hand was pulled close to her stomach with the sling Isaac had made carefully supporting her injured arm.

When she noticed the grim expressions on her brother and godfather’s faces she quickly realized she needed to get off the phone. “John, I’m going to have to call you back,” she stammered out.

“Is everything ok?” John asked concern evident in his tone.

“Tell Oliver I’ll be back on Wednesday,” she said before tapping the screen to end the call. “Is it, is it Dad?” she gasped.

Derek didn’t really trust himself to answer out loud so he simply nodded.

“He died a wolf,” Deucalion added. “Sheriff Stillinski said it would take some time to determine whether it was murder or an accident. I can call some of my contacts and see if I can get the evidence rushed, and they’re still going to insist on a DNA sample for analysis, but as far as we can tell the remains are Martin’s.”

The alpha sunk to her knees, no longer bothered by her cold mud layered clothing, dropping her phone in the process. “How sure are you? You could be wrong right? The remains could be someone else’s?”

“Ms. Smoak, your mother’s picture was found on the body, along with your grandmother’s wedding ring, and some of Martin’s personal items. The body you found is indeed your father’s,” her godfather told her.

“Do we have to call it in?” Felicity asked. “Surely there’s something else we could do?”

“Ms. Smoak, the Sheriff is already making the appropriate calls,” the other alpha replied.

“Then tell him to stop. Move his body. Cover this back up. There has to be something we can do?” she pushed.

“Felicity,” Derek began. “I know this is hard but-“

“No,” She said pulling away from her brother’s grasp. “I can’t bury someone else. I can’t and I won’t. This is the first time I’ve been home for something that has nothing to do with death of one of our family members. It’s not supposed to be like this. We should running, or playing games, or watching Cora’s stupid home movies; we shouldn’t be burying another family member, especially not him, not Dad.”

“Derek, maybe you and your sister should go home,” Deucalion suggested.

“I’m not going back to Starling,” Felicity objected.

“That wasn’t what I was suggesting,” he replied softly. “Laura’s things are still at the loft, correct?” Derek nodded. “Why don’t you both go back there and get some sleep. I can contact Cora’s alpha, see if he would agree to move her trip next week up to tomorrow. I’m sure the Sheriff knows how to get in contact with you, if he or someone from his department needs anything else.”

“What about Peter? I don’t want him near us, not right now,” Derek said. “And if he finds out about this-“

“There are cloaking charms in my old apartment, they will mask Felicity’s scent,” the alpha explained. “That way if Peter does recognize her, he won’t know she was turned.”

“I thought you told him not to recruit anyone,” Stiles voiced.

“And I haven’t,” Deucalion pointed out.

“So you just happened to be nearby when your missing Lt’s body just shows up, after twenty-five years of searching?” Stiles questioned.

“It’s not like that Stiles,” Derek said. “I already told you. I told Deucalion to be here.”

“Then how the hell did he get here so fast?”

“I was camping on the other side of the preserve in neutral territory,” the alpha defended. “The same campsite I’ve used since Martin and I were both children. I wasn’t aware that was a crime.”

“So we just have to take your word for it.”

“Stiles, he’s telling the truth,” Scott said.

“Or maybe he’s just a really good liar,” Stiles pointed out. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“He’s camping here because I asked him to be here,” Felicity said interrupting the teenager’s argument. “I just found out about being a werewolf. I don’t have control. I asked Deucalion to bring me out here, so I wouldn’t hurt anyone I cared about, ok. We were camping more than ten miles away, and when I shifted I went for a run. My wolf must have picked up my dad’s scent, because the next thing I know I’m covered in dirt and mud staring at what’s left of his remains.”

“Why not call Derek?” Stiles asked.

“I really don’t see how my relationship with my brother is any of your business,” Felicity snapped. “And for the fucking record I’ve spent most of the last twelve months trying to get a hold of Derek, and it wasn’t until recently when I called him on a borrowed cell phone that he even bothered to answer his. And I get it, it’s your job to play devil’s advocate, but can you at least wait until I’m out of hearing distance before you start questioning everyone’s motives?! Because in case you forgot, that body, the one everyone was called here about, is my fucking father’s! Those bones are the only thing that I have to remember him by, because we all know what happened to the rest of it!” She was breathing hard by that point, not even realizing that something wasn’t quite right, that even in a stressful situation like this she shouldn’t be having this much trouble breathing. “I-, I-, I think-,” She started to gasp.

“Felicity?” Derek questioned.

“Can’t- breathe-,” she struggled. Her vision was becoming blurry now. It wasn’t like when she used to take her glasses off, if anything it was worse. Instead of seeing double or triple of something or someone, she could barely make out the different shapes. She reached out to grab Derek’s arm for balance, but it obviously wasn’t where she thought because instead she stumbled forwards, losing any sense of balance she had.

“Felicity!” Derek said, obviously concerned for his sister’s well-being. She thought maybe he might have said something else, but she couldn’t hear what exactly it was. There was too much background noise. It was a humming sound, almost like a loud generator, accompanied by a strong, but fast and steady pulse. She thought she could feel someone grab her arm, but that was when her vision went completely black and she began to feel like she was falling.

* * *

 

“What was that?” Oliver asked, when he heard cursing coming from the other end of John’s call.

“That didn’t sound like minor first aid,” Diggle noted.

“Something’s wrong,” Oliver said.

“Yeah, your shoulder isn’t in its socket,” Sara replied.

“Felicity?” John questioned.

“That wasn’t what I was talking about. My shoulder is fine,” Oliver insisted. “I just need some of the herbs from my stuff and then I can reset it.” He started to walk over to where he kept his crate from the island, going for the pouch of herbs. He took the whole bag and went to go get a mortar from off of one of the shelves, knowing that he was going to either have Sara grind the plant up for him, or reset his shoulder first. “Do you mind giving me a hand?”

“Felicity, you do realize that you basically yelled loud enough for everyone to be able to hear you without having to turn my cell on speaker?” Diggle questioned. “And who has severe liver damage and self-destructive tendencies? I only caught about a third of what was being said.”

“The things I do for you,” Sara teased light heartedly, going over to the table and pouring some of the herb into the bowl. “Exactly how much of this stuff do you need?”

“About a table spoon,” Oliver answered.

“Is it some type of tea or something?”

“Is everything ok?” John asked Felicity from his end of the line, clearly concerned.

“Something like that,” Oliver answered Sara’s question. “When it’s powder, you can stop.”

Sara began grinding the leaves into a fine powder, and when she was done she lifted the bowl up and sniffed it. “Is there a reason you’re about to drink some type of weird plant ashes?”

“It’s not ashes,” he corrected, taking the bowl from Sara’s grasp. He carefully pulled a bottle of water out from the evidence fridge and poured some into the bowl, stirring the liquid for a few seconds before tilting the contents into his mouth and swallowing. He took in a few breaths and noticed that while the pain was lessening slightly, the feeling he had in the pit of his stomach only got worse. “Something is still wrong.”

“Oliver I’m pretty sure liquid charcoal won’t do anything to fix a dislocated shoulder,” Sara replied.

“Shh,” John shushed the two of them from his spot by the computer.

“I’m not talking about my shoulder,” he told his friend. “I’m telling you, something in my gut is telling me that something isn’t right.”

“How about you let me reset your shoulder, and if you still feel that way after, then we’ll do something,” she compromised.

“Be quiet,” John hissed.

“You ready?” Sara whispered. Going over and walking behind him, before stepping in front of him slightly, so she could reposition the joint.

“What do you- JESUS!” Oliver exclaimed when Sara roughly placed his shoulder joint back in its socket.

“What part of quiet don’t you two understand?” John asked. “I need to re-route this call.” He went over to the computer station so he could send the audio of the call through the speakers into the room. There was a clicking noise and suddenly they could hear yelling.

“- wait until I’m out of hearing distance before you start questioning everyone’s motives?! Because in case you forgot, that body, the one everyone was called here about, is my fucking father’s! Those bones are the only thing that I have to remember him by, because we all know what happened to the rest of it!” There was a pause and they heard some rustling noise before they heard Felicity say something else. “I-, I-, I think-,” She was gasping now, obviously having trouble breathing.

“Felicity?” they heard a guy question.

“Can’t” <gasp ><gasp> “Breathe,” she struggled.

“Felicity!” they heard the same voice from before. There was some type of scuffling noise, before suddenly lots of voices were voicing all of their thoughts at once.

“Derek, get your sister back to the loft,” they all heard Deucalion order.

“The loft?” another person questioned. “I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure she needs a doctor. She just collapsed for Christ’s sake.”

“Have you listened to a single thing we’ve said the past ten minutes?” the first voice asked.

“Boys!” a woman snapped. “Derek, take Felicity back to our house, it’s the closest, I’ll treat her there. John, I trust you and your deputies can handle this?”

“Yeah,” a new voice answered. “I’ll keep everyone updated and make sure none of my people alert the media.”

“Scott, did you do the sentence thing?” the woman asked.

“Yes,” another new voice replied. “I’ll call Deaton, maybe he knows why she would have fainted.”

“We still need to get things from the penthouse,” Deucalion reminded.

“Stiles, call Alison, tell her what’s going on and have her and Chris look through the penthouse and get whatever they think will help,” the woman ordered. “I trust they would know what to look for?”

“Yes,” Deucalion answered. “What Felicity needs is in a wooden box by the front door. They have the family symbols etched onto the top; make sure they bring the whole box, we might need more than one.”

“Derek, let’s get moving. Your car is faster,” the woman said. There was more scuffling noises followed by car doors slamming and an engine being started and revved up.

“Should we get her stuff or something?” a timid voice asked.

“Most of her things are back at the campsite,” Deucalion answered. “Mr. McCall, I trust you can follow the trail back to the camp and grab Ms. Smoak’s things. They’re in a black knap sack, I would go fetch them myself, but I need to remain here to give a statement.”

“So what’s the plan? Say Deucalion found the body and pretend Felicity was never here? He’s blind, what’s he going to say? He tripped?”

“Mr. Stillinski it might surprise you to know that I have been camping in this preserve since before your parents were your age. Multiple parties can testify to that, as well as give evidence that despite my disability I am still a perfectly competent tracker,” Deucalion argued. “The rangers here know me, they know I’ve been looking for Martin’s remains for many years. Telling everyone that I finally found them would be the most believable and widely accepted theory.”

“Stiles, can you and Isaac take my mom’s car and meet Deaton at my house, that way if he does try something, he’ll know what happened?”

“Yeah,” the voice replied. “It shouldn’t be a problem. What do you want us to do about the creeper in a v neck?”

“If he shows up before Alison gets there, distract him. Tell him about the body, hopefully that will buy enough time.”

There were some more shuffling noises, and they heard another car start and one of the men from earlier say something undiscernible into a radio. There were a few thumping noises, followed by a brief static sound.

“Huh?” they heard the timid voice question.

“Isaac! C’mon, man!”

There was a beep. “Oh sh-“ then the phone call got cut off.

“I’m pretty sure we weren’t supposed to hear that,” Sara said after a second to process the conversation they had just over heard.

“Diggle, can you trace the call?” Oliver asked.

“Already on it,” John told him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, if you kill me now, you won't know what happens next... (ducks behind furniture).


	4. Are you the moron?

"I don't understand what's happening," Derek hissed in frustration.

Felicity was buried under a heavy blanket, lying on the McCall's living room couch, her body shaking from tremors, sweating profusely, and her complexion rivaled the color of one of the white blankets she was lying on top of. There was also a rapidly melting ice pack on her forehead and a meat thermometer sticking out of her mouth.

"Derek, her temperature is 107 degrees Fahrenheit and climbing," Melissa said, checking the readout of the device. "If she were a human, she would be dead right now. I need you to think back, do you remember this ever happening to a member of your family when you were younger? Maybe a relative?"

"We don't get sick," Derek argued. "We don't even get colds, and I know Felicity's not allergic to anything. When we found out Laura was allergic to peanuts, my mom had all of us tested, and Felicity didn't talk to her for a week after because she hates needles."

"Did you know your sister has a dependency on pain killers?" Melissa asked.

The man nodded. "She gets these migraines, ever since we were kids, but she's never abused meds or over dosed. She always stays right below the maximum dosage."

"Do you think that might have changed when she became a werewolf?" the nurse asked.

"If anything becoming a werewolf should have gotten rid of her migraines," he replied. "None of this makes sense. I can't even take away some of her pain!"

"Calm down," Melissa told him, resting a hand on his arm. "I understand that you're upset, but getting angry and frustrated is not going to help her. Have you spoken to Cora yet?" Derek shook his head no. "Call your younger sister; let her know what's going on. Maybe she knows something that could help. But the one thing you cannot do right now is fall apart. Your sisters need you right now, they both need their brother. Ok?"

Derek nodded in understanding before pulling his cell phone from his pocket and stepping out of the room for a moment to call his other sibling.

Melissa heard a beeping noise and looked down to notice that the thermometer had finished taking the blonde's temperature. "112 on the nose. Okay, we need to get your temperature down," the nurse spoke softly to herself, before coming up with an idea. She heard the front door open and looked up to see Stiles and Isaac head over to her. "Stiles I need you to go into the basement and get one of the large bags of ice from the freezer. Isaac, I need your help to get Felicity upstairs and into the bath tub. We need to bring her temperature down, and we can't afford to wait for Deaton any longer."

Both boys nodded in understanding before doing as they were asked. Melissa went over to the refrigerator and grabbed the large tray of ice out of the freezer and followed Isaac up the stairs. She put the tray down and quickly began filling the tub. "We're going to have to cut that sweatshirt off of her along with most of the legs of her sweat pants. Go back downstairs and get the large kitchen scissors." Isaac carefully put the blonde down in the tub, while Melissa plugged the drain and began filling it with cold water. Once she was sure the water wasn't going back down the drain she dropped the tray of ice cubes in.

"What do I do with this?" Stiles asked, holding up a large bag of ice.

"Put it in the sink for now. After the tub has more water in it, I need you to dump all of the ice into the water. We need to get her core temperature down and we're going to need to hold her head as far back in the water as possible without drowning her," Melissa told him.

"Isn't this a little extreme for a temperature?" Stiles asked.

"Her body temperature is four degrees above fatal right now," Melissa told him. "Human brains begin cooking at 104, the longer this continues and the more her temperature increases the more the amount of brain damage she will sustain increases. We have to force her temperature back down."

Isaac quickly stood in the doorway holding out the scissors to the nurse, which were quickly taken from his grasp and in return he soon was tossed several scraps of wet clothing the blonde had been wearing, while still maintaining her modesty. "Stiles, ice." The nurse instructed.

Stiles ripped open the bag and placed it in the water behind the blonde's back before tipping it over and dumping the contents completely, and pushing it around so that Melissa could lower the werewolf's upper body. "One of you needs to hold her legs still so when she regains consciousness, she doesn't try and move too much. When she wakes her immediate reaction will be to panic. But we have to keep her in the water until her temperature goes below 103, so whoever isn't helping me needs to get the oven thermometer from down stairs, the electronic one with the cord attached and constantly monitor her temperature. Do not turn it off or let it go to sleep. It has to be on the entire time." Isaac immediately knelt down next to the nurse and placed his limbs in the freezing water to hold down the other werewolf's legs while Stiles ran downstairs this time.

"What do we tell Derek?" Isaac asked.

"Right now, nothing," Melissa told the teenager. "She'll be ok. If I've learned anything about werewolves, it's that you guys can bounce back from just about anything and wind up on top. You and the pack have been through a lot, and if Felicity is anything like any of you, she's not going to let something simple and boring, like a fever, get the best of her."

They both heard a siren noise and glanced around the bathroom not entirely sure where the source of the noise was. "Is that a cell phone?" Melissa asked.

"I picked up Felicity's phone after she dropped it," Isaac admitted. "I figured she probably didn't want it processed as evidence in her father's murder investigation."

"Good thinking," Melissa told him.

"I've got the thermometer!" Stiles exclaimed, holding it up in triumph.

"Now if you could just take her temperature," Melissa told him.

"Right," Stiles nodded. "It's goes in her mouth?"

"Yes," Melissa answered. "In her mouth under her tongue."

"I knew that," Stiles replied. He quickly did as he was told and turned the thermometer on. "Are we sure this is accurate? Because I'm pretty sure she'd be dead right now if it were."

"Yes. The second it drops below 103 I'm going to need your and Isaac's help getting her out of the tub and dried off. When Derek gets off of the phone tell him to get one of the sleeping bags out of the hall closet, along with the electric blanket, and make sure it's plugged in downstairs," Melissa replied.

"Is it just me, or is the water sort of dirty?" Isaac questioned. "It's getting all inky black."

"Derek!" Stiles yelled, sticking his head out of the bathroom.

There was some light sloshing of the water, as Felicity's body had started to jerk slightly. "It's cold?" she asked, barely opening her eyes.

"Stiles, what's her temperature at?" Melissa asked.

"110."

"Felicity, you're running a dangerously high fever, so high that you could suffer severe brain damage if we don't get it back down," the nurse explained. "We need you to hold as still as possible, and hopefully your temperature will continue to drop and you won't get hypothermia. You've been in the water about two minutes."

"Cold," Felicity replied her lips already turning blue.

"I know, honey," Melissa told her. "Just another minute and we can pull you out. But you need to stay lying back, ok." The blonde nodded in understanding. Melissa tried to give a reassuring smile, but she felt Isaac nudge her shoulder with his elbow. She looked over at the teenager and noticed he had one of Felicity's legs out of the water and that the black ink appeared to be excreting from the other werewolf's skin, almost like sweat.

"Oh god," Stiles gulped loudly, his eyes becoming almost comically wide.

There was a loud knocking noise coming from downstairs and Melissa assumed it was the emissary. "We're upstairs!" Melissa yelled. "Stiles, how high is it?"

"108."

Most of the people huddled into the bathroom could hear a shuffling noise followed by footsteps, but no one really looked at where the noise was coming from. "What exactly is going on? Oh-that's not good."

"Not good?" Stile repeated incredulously. "Is that your professional opinion?" The teenager hadn't really thought about his reply, and considering most of his responses were on autopilot anyway, he should've counted his blessings that the person who had made the original comment was not in fact the emissary they had called for assistance. Stiles eyes simply opened wider as he turned to face the other adult in the small bathroom. "Ms. Morell?"

"How long has she been like this?" Ms. Morell asked.

"She's been in the water almost three minutes," Melissa answered. "Her fever has been rapidly climbing less than ten. She had a dislocated shoulder and some minor scratches and bruising, but after we reset her shoulder she started having trouble breathing and collapsed."

"Did she eat anything, drink anything within the last twenty minutes?" The emissary asked.

"No, not that I know of," Melissa answered. "She was covered in mud and dirt, maybe she swallowed something when she fell?"

"She would know if she ate this particular substance," Ms. Morell replied.

"Is it poison?" Isaac asked.

"No," the counselor replied. "Who is she? I didn't think Scott was taking in omegas off the street."

"She's not an omega," Derek replied, from his position in the hall. "She has a pack; a mate. She's here because of me, now can you help her or not?"

"Her mate, are they close? Has he accepted the bond?" the counselor questioned.

"She's refusing to claim him," Derek admitted. "He doesn't know anything about our world."

"He's human?" Derek nodded. "Call him. Find out what he's eaten in the past hour. Even if the bond is weak it could still be affecting her."

Derek picked up the cell phone off of the floor and tried to unlock the phone. "Lis, what's your password?"

"M-M-M-M-om w-w-w-w-ed-d-d-d-ding," His sister stuttered.

"How the hell am I supposed to know that?" Derek hissed.

"Y-y-y-y-ear n-n-n-n-ot d-d-d-d-ate."

"Oh," he replied, before typing the year into the phone. "His name isn't in your contacts?"

"D-d-d-d-d-ig. C-c-c-c-all d-d-d-d-ig."

The counselor turned back towards Stiles. "What's her temperature?"

"105," Stiles replied.

"Five degrees too high," Ms. Morell noted. "We can't pull her out before her system has purged itself completely. The fever is fighting the infection and her healing is repairing any damage it's doing to her internal organs, the black ink like substance is her sweating the toxin out. She's lucky. If it had been a larger dose she could have suffered permanent damage."

"You've seen this before?" Melissa questioned.

"Once," the emissary admitted. "This instance appears to be accidental. Most humans take the substance in question as a healing supplement and are unaware of its effects on supernatural beings. It's likely her mate took it for an injury and her body is simply reacting due to the bond. I take it her mate is Oriental?"

"American," Derek corrected. "But he's spent a large amount of time in Asia, specifically China."

There was another siren noise and Derek tilted his head slightly as the device in his hand went off. "Who's John D?"

"P-p-p-p-p-ick u-u-u-p-p-p," Felicity stuttered. "P-p-p-p-p-r-r-r-o-o-b-b-b-l-l-y-y-y w-w-w-w-or-r-r-r-ied-d-d-d."

"Hello?" Derek answered.

"Who is this?" the person on the other end demanded.

"Why should I tell you?" Derek replied. "You called this number, meaning you were trying to get a hold of the owner of this phone and seeing as how they can't answer right now, I want to know who I'm speaking to and what exactly you want."

"What I want is to speak with the owner of this phone," the man replied.

"I told you they're preoccupied, and in case you haven't noticed it's nearly two in the morning so either tell me who you are and leave a message or call back at a decent hour."

Isaac wasn't quite sure what had come over him at that moment, but for some reason he found himself removing the device from his former alpha's grasp and taking the situation into his own hands. "Felicity's phone," the werewolf said. "This is Isaac. Felicity can't talk right now, but she did express that you were probably calling because you were worried about her well-being. Would I be correct in assuming I am speaking with the person named Dig?"

"You would," the man replied.

"Ok, is there something you needed to tell her? Or we're you simply just checking in?"

"Is Felicity alright?"

"Could you please define alright?" Isaac asked. Everyone stared at the teenager like he had just grown a second head, because everyone in the room realized (even the two who didn't know him that well) that this was in no way normal behavior for the werewolf. That was the point when Isaac became very self-conscious about his actions and proceeded to retreat back into his shell. "I'm giving the phone back to Derek now," he whispered quietly into the receiver before handing the cell phone back the older wolf.

Derek was about to continue his earlier conversation with his sister's apparent friend when the phone was no longer in his hand.

"Are you the moron?" Ms. Morell questioned in a bored tone. "And I use moron in a clinical sense because only a truly suicidal person or someone with absolutely no sense of self-preservation would do what has been done to this poor woman."

"Is this the part where I ask what you're talking about?" the voice on the other end replied.

"Who gave her access to herbs commonly found in China and some of its provinces that while have occasionally been known to increase the strength of a person's immune system, have also been more commonly known as a toxin, leading to infection, damage to the internal organs, nearly lethal fever temperatures, and brain damage."

"One second," Dig replied.

"Why are you handing me the phone?" another voice asked.

"You gave Felicity the super herbs," Dig replied.

"Super herbs? Super herbs!" Ms. Morell nearly squawked. "Do you mean to tell me not only did you give my patient access to a potentially dangerous substance, but that you don't even know what this particular herbs proper name and classification is! What exactly do you have to say for yourself!" There was an obvious silence on the other end of the line and when it became apparent that the man wasn't going to answer the emissary's question she continued her scolding. "What's your name?"

"I'm sorry, what exactly is going on?" the man asked.

"Your name!" she demanded, before exiting the crowded bathroom with the device.

There was the sound of the front door being opened and closed, followed by feet ascending the staircase. "Hey guys," a brunette said with a small smile, until she saw Felicity in the tub of ice that was quickly turning black. "I have that box thing. Is she ok?"

"We're trying to lower her body temperature so she doesn't sustain brain damage while her body purges some weird toxin thing from her system," Isaac whispered. "And Ms. Morell is mad at some dude."

"Stiles?" Melissa asked.

"102," he replied.

"Derek, get one of the sleeping bags from the closet and some towels," Melissa said. "Almost there, Felicity."

"Her fingers and toes are turning purple," Stiles added.

"We have to pull her out," Derek said, placing the bag outside the doorway and the towels on the floor next to the tub. He nearly pushed Isaac out of the way, but the beta wasn't budging from his spot. "Isaac, move."

"No," Isaac stood his ground. "Ms. Morell said we wait until it drops below 100."

"And what happens when she gets severe hypothermia and dies?!" Derek snapped.

"I'm not moving," Isaac told him.

"D-D-D-Der," she stuttered, reaching for her brother's arm. Derek quickly grabbed his sister's hand, not paying attention to the fact it was oozing inky black fluid. "S-S-St-t-top-p-p-p."

"I'm only humoring you because you're sick," he replied, but everyone in the room who could see his facial expression knew he wasn't joking. His sister started to chuckle lightly, but it quickly turned into a cough, which led to thrashing in the ice cold water and coughing up large amounts thick black ooze.

They heard the thermometer beep and Derek and Isaac immediately pulled Felicity out of the tub and didn't hesitate to wrap her in towels, while Melissa quickly got out of the way. "Take her to the couch downstairs. I'll get her something warmer to wear. Stiles, keep an eye on her temperature if it starts going up again, it's back in the tub." Stiles nodded in understanding, removing the thermometer momentarily, while Derek carried his sibling down the stairs.

"And don't think you're getting out of giving me an explanation because of this," Derek griped. "The second Cora gets here we're having a family meeting and you're explaining what the hell happened these past few weeks." He put her down on the couch and proceeded to pull the sleeping bag over the towels, and sat on the edge of the couch cushion not wanting to part from his sibling.

"What do I do with these pendant things?" Allison asked.

"Put them around her neck."

"Which ones?" she asked. "There are like twenty."

"For now, all of them," he answered. "When she wakes up she can tell us the specific ones she needs."

"What do they do?"

"They're protection charms," Derek answered. "Each charm represents a certain pack or hunting family. If you're wearing the charm and a member of either group is near, you appear human. We can't have anyone finding out she's still alive."

"What do you mean still alive?" Allison questioned. "Who is she? Is she like Peter?"

"No," He sighed. "But if Peter finds her, then we're going to have more than just one corpse on our hands."

"I don't understand."

"I think I do," Another voice answered.

The two pack members looked up and saw Lydia standing in the entrance to the living room, staring at the unconscious blonde as if she were a ghost. "I followed the screams," their friend replied, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Who is she?"

"My sister," Derek answered. "She was Laura's second, despite being the eldest. Our grandfather told most of the packs that she died before her first full moon, but our mom was able to sneak her onto neutral ground before he could give her the bite."

"She wasn't born a werewolf?" Allison questioned.

"It's complicated," Derek sighed.

"Her mate is either stupid or suicidal," Ms. Morell commented coming down the staircase. "Possibly even a little of both. But assuming he doesn't take any more of that infernal plant she'll be fine."

"Anything else I should worry about?" he asked. "No medications or foods to avoid?"

"She'll need to stay in town for a few days," the emissary answered. "She needs to be around pack, if not pack then other wolves, it will help speed up the healing process. And she's going to need rest and relaxation. No stress. If she's still puking up the toxin in twelve hours, then take her to the clinic."

"That's it? Family cuddle time and sleep?" Allison questioned. "She was coughing up black ooze ten minutes ago."

"It's an infection not rocket science, Ms. Argent. By spending time with other wolves she will be able to boost her own healing abilities and get over the infection faster. She's young and healthy so her body is more prepared to fight off the toxin, and since you caught it relatively quickly there shouldn't be any irreparable damage. However if her temperature does return you will have to call her mate. Ice baths can only do so much."

"Thank you," Derek said. "You didn't have to help, and yet you did. I appreciate it, and I'm sure Felicity will too once she's conscious."

"I am still the emissary to the alpha pack. I swore an oath I dare not break, and as Deucalion's heir my services are no obligation. Besides it's not often one gets to save the life a royal," Ms. Morell smiled. "Tell your sister should she need it my door is open to her and hers, always."

"I will," he nodded. "And again, thank you."

It wasn't until after Ms. Morell had left and the rest of the occupants of the house had been waiting in the living room for twenty minutes; that Scott returned with the rest of Felicity's things.

"Will she be ok?" Scott asked, breaking the silence.

"Ms. Morell said the more she's around other wolves the faster she'll heal," Derek replied. "It's an infection. Her mate took something not knowing it was poisonous to us. Once it leaves their systems she should be back to normal."

"So what are you going to do?" Allison asked.

"When she wakes up I'll take her back to the loft. Laura's stuff is still there, I'm hoping being surrounded by our scents will help keep her calm, at least until she can go back to her pack," the older beta answered.

"But why would something someone else took affect her?" Isaac questioned. "It's not like she took any of it."

"When a mating link forms it's like a direct link to that person. You share everything with each other; feelings, sensations, thoughts, pain, injuries, sometimes even abilities. Mating links used to happen all of the time in packs, but as the years passed it became rarer and rarer. Our mom had it with Felicity's father and it nearly got her killed. Maybe because our mom had it and since she's the firstborn, Felicity was able to find her mate too," Derek guessed.

"So is a mate like a werewolf soulmate or something?" Scott questioned.

"Sometimes," Derek answered. "Our mom never talked about it, at least not with me. But from the stories I have heard it varies depending on circumstance, the only thing that anyone knows for certain is that once the bond is established it never goes away, not even in death."

"So," Stiles paused. "Your family is royalty? How did that happen?"

"We're not royalty," Derek sighed. "Felicity is royalty. Whenever the alphas of two packs get married their offspring is considered royalty, because they would become the heir of both packs, merging the two packs together and forming a stronger new one. Deucalion has never given someone the bite or had a child, so he named Felicity his heir, since she's his niece, and since she's also the oldest among our siblings, she should have been the heir to the Hale pack. But like I said, the whole thing is complicated."

"So I guess the only other question to ask is who died?" Lydia wondered.

"Felicity dug up her father's missing remains," Isaac answered. "Deucalion said they've been missing for more than twenty-five years."

"So magic?" the banshee guessed.

"Probably," Derek groaned. "Her dad was an emissary which means he had the ability to hide himself from anyone not related by blood. Now I just have to wait for the sheriff to finish collecting evidence to see if he was really murdered. If he was Deucalion's going to want to reinstate Felicity and hold Deaton accountable for what happened."

"Why would Deaton be held accountable?" Scott asked. "He didn't do anything."

"That's the point," Derek replied. "Deaton was her father's replacement. He should have had an investigation and collected evidence, but he didn't. He thought our mother's mental state was too fragile and the stress would affect her pregnancy, which just pissed Mom and Deucalion off even more."

"Do you think he knew about your grandfather?" Stiles asked.

"Of course not," Scott immediately replied. "Deaton wouldn't do that."

"Deaton was barely out of training when he took over," Derek said. "It's possible he didn't know or that Isaiah threatened him to keep him quiet. But we won't know for sure until Martin's remains are released. That way we can look at both sets of memories, go from there."

"So what happens now?" Lydia asked. "We wait?"

"I don't think we have much of a choice," Scott admitted.

* * *

Once they had all gotten back to the loft the pack had decided to take turns watching over Felicity for the rest of the night. The only one who had refused sleep outright was Derek, and he had opted to sitting next to his sister's bed and taking as much of her pain as he could. Scott had to order the beta to stop a few times because he was on the verge of passing out, but even then he had only stopped long enough to drink part of an energy drink before taking more of his sister's pain.

When six am rolled around it was Isaac's turn to keep an eye on the siblings, and by then he had a list of questions a mile long. The only problem was that he had no idea how to ask his former alpha.

Before Deucalion had introduced himself challenging Scott and Derek, Isaac knew exactly where he stood. He was Derek's beta, his Lt. He followed orders from his alpha and in exchange Derek took care of him. His alpha made a place for him, made him feel wanted and needed, but that changed when Derek threw him out. The rational part of Isaac's mind knew Derek only did what he had in order to protect Isaac, Derek threw him out so the alpha pack wouldn't hurt him like they had hurt Boyd and Erica. But Isaac's wolf didn't understand. It was hurt and wounded and all it wanted was for his alpha to take him back, but Isaac knew that wasn't going to happen so he went to the only other wolf he knew that might help, Scott.

Now it seemed like the roles had reversed. Scott was the alpha and Derek was the reluctant beta. But Isaac's wolf didn't connect to Scott like he had with Derek. Isaac followed orders and he knew he had a place in Scott's pack, but it wasn't the same. And while he was grateful that Scott had taken him in and accepted him, Isaac knew that something was missing. And now, Isaac's wolf seemed to think that his former alpha's older sister was the answer.

"You can ask," Derek said from his spot on the bed, effectively stopping Isaac's train of thought. "Whatever is going through your head right now, you can ask."

For a few seconds Isaac imagined that he looked like an owl, sitting there staring at Derek in shock with his eyes wide open, but then he snapped out of it said the first question that came to his mind. "Was she supposed to be a member of our pack?"

"Yes. I had planned to ask her to be our emissary," Derek admitted.

"So why wasn't she?"

"She cussed me out before I could ask, and I never bothered to try and ask again. She was still angry about what had happened to Laura, and me telling her Peter killed Laura over something she would have willingly given him was the last straw. She cussed me out, and up until yesterday we hadn't really spoken since," Derek sighed. "I know she wanted to talk to you though. She wanted to make sure you were doing ok."

"Why?" The teenager wondered. "She doesn't know me."

"Family has always been important to us," the older beta explained. "Our mother cared about her pack, but everyone knew that my sisters and I were the most important people in her life. She used to tell us she would turn night into day if we needed her to, and when Felicity was sent away it killed her. She swore family would always come first after that, and Laura and Felicity did everything they could to follow her example, so when I took you in, in Felicity's mind you became family. You being my beta had nothing to do with it. I invited you into my home and I took responsibility for you and that made you family to her."

"But if you weren't talking, how did she know about me?"

"My older sister is a certified genius. She had two master's degrees from MIT at nineteen. If there is an electronic record of anything, no matter where it is or who has, she can find it and she will," Derek said. "Just because we weren't talking to each other didn't mean that she didn't know exactly what was going on in my life. I would be more worried if she hadn't kept tabs on me. She even went as far as to send me emails of my own electronic footprint every week."

"So she's not trying to recruit me for her pack?" Isaac questioned. Derek furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, which Isaac clearly understood as elaborate. "She said she felt responsible for me because I was your beta, but if being your beta had nothing to do with her concern why would she say that?"

Derek had a contemplative look on his face for a second, before turning to his sleeping sibling and gently poking her repeatedly in the arm. "Lis, Lis wake up. Lis, wake up."

"Go away," the wolf groaned. "It's the weekend."

"Lis wake up." Derek continued to lightly prod and poke.

"No, I'm tired," she replied sleepily, snuggling deeper into the pillows.

"Laura is eating all of your bacon," he replied.

Felicity immediately shot up, only to let out an undignified groan of pain less than half a second later when the automatic movement of her muscles registered in her brain. "You're evil. Pure evil and I don't know whether to be proud or vengeful."

"Think of this as payback for the clown porn fiasco of 06," he said with a fake smile. "You feel up for a chat?"

"Depends, first tell me what I'm wearing and why it's really warm in here?" the alpha countered.

"It's a combination of your tank top, what's left of your favorite pair of jeans, Jackson's lacrosse hoody that I borrowed and never returned, and Laura's tear off pants. And the reason you think it's warm is because your fever went back up again less than an hour ago; it's not high enough to worry over but that doesn't mean I'm not going to check every half hour," he explained. "Also, Isaac wants to ask you something."

Felicity slowly leaned her back up against the head board and adjusted the pillows with her elbows, before looking over at the beta sitting in the corner of the room. "Hi." She waved meekly.

Isaac nodded in greeting, still not quite sure how to ask about what was on his mind.

"You don't have to sit in the corner. You can move the chair closer or sit on the end of the bed or something. There's like fifteen feet of space between us, no need to have a conversation across the room," she said. "Unless of course you want to, in which case that's fine too."

The beta looked at the other werewolf with a quizzical expression on his face while he could feel his wolf urging him to curl up on the end of the bed. He carefully pulled his chair across the room and stopped right next to the female wolf's bedside.

"Felicity Smoak," she introduced herself with a warm smile. "I would offer to shake your hand but mine is sweaty and nasty right now. Probably not a good idea."

He nodded in understanding. "Isaac Lahey," he replied.

"So cub, what's on your mind?" Her eyes suddenly widened and her mouth hung open for a second as she looked at Derek, while the younger sibling simply tried to stifle his chuckle. "Tell me I did not just turn into Mom."

Derek simply laughed louder at his sister's apparent shock. "It takes a while to get used to, balancing what your wolf wants with what you want. And yes, you totally just turned into Mom."

"I am so sorry," she apologized to Isaac. "I swear I don't normally go around calling people cub, especially people I don't know very well."

"It's ok," Isaac told her. "I think my wolf likes it?" There was this mental image stuck in his head of a wolf walking around with his chest puffed out, and he wasn't quite sure where it had come from, but he had a feeling it belonged to the other half of his personality. "I'm not really sure how to ask this," the beta admitted hesitantly.

"Isaac wants to know why you said you feel responsible for him because he was my beta, even though you don't value pack as much as family and you aren't trying to recruit him," Derek paraphrased.

"Can you please get me my back pack," Felicity asked Derek. Her brother just raised an eyebrow at her request. Thankfully Felicity was still relatively well versed in Derek's mannerisms so she knew what he was asking. "Yes it pertains to the current conversation, and yes I really do want you out of the room for five minutes. So, go be a good boy, fetch."

Derek glared at the alpha as he silently got off the bed and left the room with a huff.

Felicity turned back to Isaac and her smile turned much more sincere than it was a second ago. "I'm not sure what Derek told you, but you need to know that I'm not trying to recruit you. That's not why I came here; it's not why I wanted to talk to you."

"He said that," Isaac nodded.

"When Derek first took you in our family lawyer began processing your adoption papers," Felicity told him. "They were supposed to be finalized at the beginning of your junior year, but when you were admitted to the hospital they were put on hold."

"Because Derek kicked me out of the pack," Isaac assumed.

"Because I had hired Braeden to keep an eye on you, and while I wanted to be prepared I didn't want her to need to protect you," the blonde corrected. "But after it happened I wanted to make sure you were going to recover ok and that you were dealing with the trauma well enough to handle the stress of going through with the adoption."

"But if you didn't know about werewolves, why did you hire Braeden?" the teenager question.

"Most of my family was murdered here, I wasn't willing to take chances, and if I had to dip into the family funds to do it then that was fine with me," she answered honestly. "Braeden came highly recommended by people I trust, and considering you're here and in one piece I'd say she did a decent job of keeping you alive."

Isaac simply nodded again in understanding, even if he still had more questions than answers at the moment. The strange part was he didn't even need to listen to her pulse to know that the older wolf was being truthful with him. He just knew. "So why do you feel responsible for me?"

"Because I know what it feels like to have the pack bond severed and its pain I wouldn't wish on anyone else," she explained. "I've been through that pain so many times, and instead of stepping up and accepting my responsibilities I was selfish and it got you hurt. I should have been there to help you and your pack, and I didn't so that makes me partly responsible for what happened. What happened to Erica, Boyd, Jackson, Stiles, even Mrs. Argent, that's on me, their blood is on my hands. If I'd been there they would be alive right now, and that guilt is something I have to live with."

"What happens now?"

"Now, Derek comes back in the room and stops eavesdropping," Felicity stated loudly, only for the door to be opened quickly by Derek who was carrying a back pack and carefully set it down next to his sister, before going back to his previous spot.

Felicity opened the back pocket and pulled out a large stack of papers. She handed a few to Derek and began sorting the rest into four piles. "Those are all of the forms you were supposed to sign when you stepped down and didn't. If you get confused by the big kid words I'm sure Cora would be happy to read it to you."

"I'll have you know that I got a four on my AP English test," Derek told her as he skimmed the papers.

"It was a freshmen class and you were tutored by a ten year old," Felicity scoffed. "Not to mention that you tried to pay me and Laura to write your papers." When the blonde had separated the rest of the papers into the appropriate piles she grabbed the smallest and closest one and flipped to the back page. "Sign here please," she asked Isaac with a small smile.

Isaac immediately did as he was asked and didn't think to question what he was signing until the other wolf put the papers back into her bag. "Did I just sell my soul?"

"No. Those papers were finalizing the sale of most of your father's estate," Felicity told him. "Since Derek was your legal guardian we had the family lawyer take care of the paperwork. We added part of the money to your pre-existing college account, but most of it went into a private account that you should be getting access to within the next couple of days. There's also your dad's house to consider, but you don't have to deal with that right now if you don't want to."

"So what are those?" he asked.

"Those are for you," the female wolf told him. "They're your options."

"What does that mean?"

"You're almost eighteen, and in the court of law that makes you an adult. Those papers outline three different possibilities for your future. One set will finalize your adoption, the one that I put on hold after you were attacked which means you can stay with either of us, another set will get you emancipated so you can live on your own, and the third will give guardianship over you to whomever you choose, there was also a fourth option for foster care but I immediately ruled it out because of my own personal issues. If you really want to go back in the system no one will stop you but trust me it is not something you want to go through. Derek almost got put into the system once, after the fire and he ran off for a few months. Scared the crap out of Laura and I and Aunt Clara was about to start a one man mission to search every state in the continental US just so she could drag him back and ground him until he went to college," she babbled. "And I'm babbling again. Sorry, that happens."

"You get used to it after a while," Derek added. "Thankfully the babbling wasn't passed onto me and Cora."

"No you got the dunce gene," the alpha joked. "Derek is what Laura and I would lovingly refer to as the low end of the genetic totem pole, the pretty boy. But we still love him, despite his clueless demeanor."

"Did it ever occur to you that you three were just overly intelligent?" Derek asked.

"Aww, look at little Der-bear trying to be normal," Felicity cooed. "Embrace the weird Derek, it makes life more interesting."

"Remind me to hit you in the back of the head when you're better," the beta griped.

"I love you too bro," Felicity told him with a chuckle.

The blonde started snickering at what she could tell was one of Derek's half-hearted glares and then full on laughing, which quickly turned into another coughing fit, followed by Derek grabbing a bucket from the side of the bed and putting it into his sister's lap. It didn't take long for Felicity to start puking up more black bile after that, and the light mood that had briefly settled completely disappeared again. Only instead of Derek constantly taking away her pain, Isaac and Derek were switching off.

When the puking stopped Derek handed Felicity a washcloth and she wiped her mouth off, while he put the bucket in the corner of the room next to a window. "You should go back to sleep," Derek said softly, his concern coming back full force.

"Yeah," she agreed with a yawn. "That's probably a good idea." She started to lie back down on the bed and curl up underneath the covers. "Derek? Where's my pillow?"

"It's on the couch," Derek said. "I'll be right back." The older beta quickly left the bedroom, and Isaac just sat in his chair not quite sure what to do or how to act.

Isaac was surprised at the two siblings' demeanor towards each other. He'd known Derek for almost a year, shared an apartment with him and he'd never seen the man as relaxed as he had been in the past five minutes. He could see more of the person that Derek had been before the accident, how having family could help people heal instead of hurting each other. And he wanted that. He wanted that type of relationship where he wasn't afraid and second guessing himself constantly and he could be honest without the fear of getting hurt because of it.

"Isaac," Felicity said, pulling him from his inner thoughts. "I want you to know that you don't have to decide anything right now. You can take as much time as you need, and whatever you decide Derek and I will do everything we can to help, even if it means you want us to leave you alone."

"You would do that?"

"I wouldn't want to," the other wolf admitted. "There's always going to be a part of me that's going to worry and check in to make sure you're ok, that's just the type of person I am, but if you told me not to contact you I'd listen. I just want you to be happy and safe."

Isaac nodded in understanding and watched as the older wolf began to lose consciousness, knowing he probably wasn't going to be getting much rest for a while.

* * *

"This is a horrible plan," Oliver said for what felt like the thousandth time.

"Says the one who gave his friend a toxic substance," Diggle told him with a fake smile.

"Sara, back me up on this," Oliver begged.

"Oliver you dug your hole; now shut up and lie in it like a big boy," She replied. "And maybe next time we tell you not to use burnt toxic waste to treat injuries you'll listen to us."

"How was I supposed to know it was dangerous," he continued to argue. "Yao Fe used it, I've used it, Slade used it."

"Slade also used Mirakuru yet I don't see you handing that out to our friends like its candy," the blonde snapped. "Now take these and for the love of god think up a better thing to say than 'I'm sorry for accidentally almost killing you'." Sara handed him several boxes and shoved him in the direction of the apartment building they had triangulated Felicity's cell phone signal in.

"We'll be at the hotel if you need us," John added before shutting the passenger door and driving the van back down the street.

"He's so getting a pay cut," Oliver grumbled. He quickly crossed the street and carefully balanced the boxes in one hand so he could hit the front door buzzer.

"Who is it?" he heard someone yell over the intercom.

"Delivery for  _Sour Wolf_?" Oliver found himself questioning as he read the name on one of the boxes.

"Stiles!" Followed by a loud buzzing indicating the front door had been unlocked.

Oliver decided not to question anything as he opened the front door and looked around for the correct apartment number. There were a few doors on the first floor but none of them had numbers on them, so he decided to look around upstairs. When he got to the top of the staircase he found himself in front of a large metal sliding door. The rest of the floor was a walkway in front of a brick wall. "So much for that theory," he murmured to himself.

He heard another loud buzzing noise and a door being opened followed by voices.

"Did Scott say what he wanted help with?" One voice asked.

"No," a similar voice answered. "We both got the same text dumbass. All it said was he needed help and to meet everyone at the loft half an hour ago. Now come on, we're already late enough as it is."

"I'm not the one who insisted on waiting for their bike to finish getting fixed as opposed to calling a cab," the first one replied.

"I'm sorry I didn't feel like paying thirty bucks for a cab when I had more than a half a tank of gas," the second one snapped.

Oliver heard the two head up the stairs and when he saw twins in similar biker's jackets he simply nodded in greeting.

"Dude, you lost?" the second guy asked.

"Someone ordered a delivery to this address," Oliver replied. "I think it was a prank. I don't think anyone is mean enough to name their child Sour Wolf."

"No you've got the right place," the same one replied, opening the heavy door and walking into what looked like an apartment.

"Here let me help you with those," the first one offered, taking three of the boxes off of the top of the stack. "Just follow me. If you got buzzed into the building that means he's expecting you. Sour Wolf is a nick name." Oliver followed him over to a bar where he set the boxes down. "Let me grab Scott or Derek so you can get a signature or whatever."

The polite brother quickly made his way up a spiral staircase and the archer took a second to look around the rather spacious and empty loft he found himself in. He thought he heard some type of clicking noise and then felt an odd stinging sensation on the back of his neck before blacking out.

* * *

"So not to be rude or anything, but why exactly is the pizza delivery guy gagged and tied to a chair?" Stiles asked.

"Because he's not the pizza delivery guy," Derek replied.

"And you know that how?" Scott asked.

"Derek orders lots of pizza," Isaac answered. "And Chinese food, and sandwiches, and chicken wings, basically any food you can get delivered to your house."

"You are aware of these things called grocery stores, are you not?" Stiles asked. "Because contrary to my dad's beliefs a person cannot live on take out alone."

"Yes Stiles I am aware of the existence of grocery stores," Derek replied. "Now can we please get back to dealing with the pizza man who is not actually a pizza man?"

"So if he's not a pizza man then who is he?" Aiden asked. "A hunter?"

Derek looked over at Allison questioningly. "I've never seen him before in my life," she replied.

"I think Derek is wondering if there's a way for us to tell for certain if he's hunter or not," Isaac replied.

"Sure," Allison shrugged. She grabbed a dagger off of the sheath of her belt and spun it around her finger before walking over to the unconscious guest, at least until Scott held up a hand to stop her. "Relax Scott, I just need to remove his shirt."

"He's awake," Scott replied. "He's been conscious for a while now."

The stranger replied by opening his eyes and glaring at Scott for a second, before sweeping his gaze on the rest of the occupants in the room.

"I can fix that," Aiden smirked, cracking his knuckles.

"No," Scott ordered. "Derek get the chains. We need to make sure he's secure."

"I need to check him first," Allison said. "If he is a hunter he'll have a mark, location of the mark signifies rank."

"What kind of mark?" Isaac asked.

"Different families have different ones, some use totems, some branding, some tattoos, but ranks are universal among all of the families. I can send a picture of the mark to my dad to identify the family he works for if I don't recognize it, but for now we can at least know how high up he is in the organization."

"But what if he's not a hunter?" Stiles asked.

"Even if he's not a hunter he's still too dangerous. He has enough weapons on him to justify being tied up," Allison replied. "Especially considering the circumstances, unless of course you want this guy running around town while your sister is incapacitated?" she directed the last question to Derek.

"Hunter or not, I don't believe it's a coincidence he's here," Derek agreed. "As for what we do with him, as long as he's not near Lis, I don't care."

Allison looked to Scott, indicating she was waiting for his instructions before proceeding, but before Scott could voice his decision they all turned their heads towards the stairs when they heard the tell-tale clicking of heels.

"Who's the hunk?" Lydia asked as she made her way over to the pizza boxes.

"Hunter, we think," Stiles answered. "Still trying to figure out what to do with him."

"And the day just keeps getting more and more interesting," Lydia commented.

"Why aren't you upstairs?" Derek asked.

"Because your sister is hungry and politely requested I inquire about the status of lunch," Lydia replied, going through each of the boxes, looking for one pizza in particular. "This is the most disgusting combination of toppings I have ever had the unfortunate experience of smelling." She quickly stepped away from the box and went over to where the others were.

"Pineapple, spinach, and anchovies, covered in ranch dressing and barbecue sauce," Derek stated. "I wish I could say it was simply my sister being weird but unfortunately it's genetic. It was Mom and Cora's favorite also."

"So what are we waiting on? I'm assuming he's here to kill someone, so let's drop him off at the Sheriff's station and be done with it," Lydia said.

"We can't drop him at the station," Scott said. "My dad took over while the Sheriff is being investigated for impeachment. I'm not about give him more of a reason to get the Sheriff fired." Scott paused for a minute to think before looking back at Allison. "Check him for marks."

Allison nodded and went over to the gagged man followed closely by Isaac. The werewolf held him down by the shoulders while Allison cut his shirt off. She threw the ruined shirt to the side and motioned for Isaac to step back so she could circle him. "He's a captain," she said. "Pretty sure that's the symbol for the Knyazev family, which probably makes him Bratstvo."

"What's 'bratvah'?" Isaac asked.

"Bratstvo," Lydia corrected. "It means brotherhood in Russian, but in this case I believe Allison is referring to the Russian mob."

"But does that make him a hunter?" Stiles asked.

"I'd say a fifty percent chance," Allison answered. "Not all hunters are Bratstvo, and not all Bratstvo are hunters. Either way we should remove his weapons." Allison started strategically moving his remaining clothes in order to get the weapons off the stranger's person. "Lydia, Stiles, do you mind taking a look at this?" she asked when she noticed another set of marks on his back.

"What is it?" The banshee asked.

"There's a tattoo on his shoulder. It's not like the others."

The two teenagers went over to where Allison was standing and carefully looked over what their friend had wanted them to inspect.

"It's a dragon," Stiles began, "but it's not?" He tilted his head to the side to inspect the image from a different angle, hoping to realize why this one tattoo was different other than the feeling in the pit of his stomach telling him so.

"But you see what I mean?" Allison double checked. "That there's something off about it?"

"Yeah," Stiles agreed. "Its way different, I just wish I knew why."

"It could just be that one tattoo is older than the other," Aiden groaned.

"Shh," Lydia told him. "Some of us are trying to use our brains."

"Scott, you remember when you got your tattoo? The guy at the parlor was telling us about origins and stuff," Stiles said. "Something about the meaning of the word being 'to leave a mark'?"

"Some cultures use them to mark important milestones in a person's life, that's what the hunter's mark is," Allison explained. "It's a symbol representing everything they've learned and achieved."

"But that's not what this is," Stiles assumed. "It's darker, tainted somehow, like something's wrong with it."

"What does a person have to go through in order to be considered a hunter?" Isaac asked. "Maybe something happened during his training that made him get that one as a punishment, or something."

"Each family is different," Allison answered. "And considering Gerard resorted to brainwashing I'm not sure I want to know what the other families do."

"But ranks are universal," Scott realized. "That's what you said, so would it imply that they're were tests that all hunters, no matter the family, had to pass?"

"The cellar," Allison realized, her eyes lighting up from figuring out a piece of the puzzle. "Back when my Dad was still training me, the first thing I learned was how to escape. I got grabbed and taken to some weird basement where my Dad was tied up, and they beat him up, and then he showed me how to escape. He said getting myself out was my first test."

"Guys?" Lydia attempted to question, but Allison didn't hear her.

"And then when I did when I finally got out I was really pissed because it took so long, and the hunter who was observing said not to beat myself up because I had beat his time by thirty minutes," the huntress continued.

"But doesn't that mean that if this guy is a hunter that he's trying to escape too?" Isaac questioned.

"I'm pretty sure anyone tied to a chair and gagged is going to try an escape if given the opportunity, hunter or not," Aiden argued.

"Guys," Lydia attempted to gain their attentions again.

"Not necessarily," Stiles replied. "Not if he didn't get what he came for."

"Of course he didn't," Derek said with an exasperated sigh. "We're all still alive."

Stiles glared at the older beta and briefly debated throwing something at him out of annoyance. "Believe it or not Sour Wolf not everyone who breaks into your apartment is trying to kill you."

"Oh for the love of god," Lydia groaned.

"Why else would a probable hunter pretend to be the pizza guy in order to enter my apartment with four weapons if not to kill me Stiles?" Derek asked sardonically.

"Only at least five other reasons," Stiles spat back automatically. "But if you would have let me finished you would already know that."

"Here we go again," Isaac mumbled with a roll of his eyes, while the two opposing sides continued to argue their current trains of thought while the other occupants of the room tried to be patient.

"Stop!" Scott finally snapped. "Both of you stop!" The alpha waited a few seconds for his pack members to acknowledge the order and take a few deep breaths. "Stiles, what was your point?"

"This," Stiles said moving to stand back in front of the stranger and pointing to the tattoo they believed was a hunter's mark. "Is a distraction, but the other one, the dragon, that's what we need to focus on because I highly doubt he did it to himself."

"Of course he didn't do it to himself. Who gives themselves a tattoo?" Aiden griped.

"Shut-Up!" Lydia ordered the entire room. Every other person's eyes snapped to the strawberry blonde who had given the command. "If everyone would simply stop talking long enough for me to be able to think clearly I might be able to get real answers." When no one said anything else, she nodded in thanks. "Finally." She held out a tentative hand and barely ghosted her fingers over the mark on the stranger's shoulder, when her eyes closed and she suddenly locked onto something only she had access to.

Lydia was perfectly still for a few seconds when she suddenly sucked in a huge gulp of air and whispered one word, "purgatory," before quickly retreating backwards, running into the kitchen island and knocking over several ceramic dishes, that shattered when they impacted with the floor.

"Ok," a new voice said rather loudly. "I can ignore the talking, and arguing, and even the yelling." There were light footsteps slowly getting louder and louder when a pair of sock covered feet descended the spiral stairs very slowly. "But when dishware is destroyed I have to draw the line, unless it was Grandma's china. I couldn't care less about Grandma's china." Felicity slowly came into view wearing sweats that were several sizes too big with a large quilt wrapped around her shoulders.

"You look awful," Derek said.

Her eyes were read and puffy to the point where they were partly swollen shut and she wasn't wearing her glasses but even with her hair sticking out in all different directions, left arm resting in a sling, hunched over and slowly shuffling across the floor, Oliver could still recognize his friend. He expected her to react to the fact he was tied up, but when she started squinting he realized just how bad her vision was without the corrective lenses she normally wore.

"Because that's the greeting every woman wants to hear when they get up for the day. No, 'hey Felicity how are you feeling', or 'good morning', or even a 'have you stopped puking yet'. If Laura were here she would have swatted you in the face with a rolled up newspaper," she grumbled, with a large yawn. "And then I would've squirted you with a spray bottle in the face. And now I finally understand why you would get so mad about it."

Isaac barely managed to contain his laughter, which came out as a loud snort.

"You're supposed to be sleeping," Derek pointed out.

"O brother of mine, where's the coffee pot?" Felicity asked ignoring his glare. "That red one, that made the obnoxious noise?"

"Morell said not to get out of bed. Can you please for once listen to the person with the medical background?" He replied with a heavy sigh. "And no coffee. It's 2pm. You'll be up all night if you drink any now."

"You do realize the irony in you telling me what to do, right?" she questioned. "I'm older, I'm actually holding down a stable job, I'm the one who actually knows how to make something other than cereal."

"Stiles, get the thermometer," Derek said.

"Stiles if you value the ability to use your fingers, you'll stop listening to my brother," Felicity replied a second later, her gaze not straying from Derek. "I have been up all night puking my guts out. I have four mop buckets upstairs filled with that nasty black toxic sewage crap and if someone tells me to go back to sleep or lie back down one more time I'm going to-" The blonde's gaze finally focused on someone besides her brother and what she saw was enough to stop her mid-sentence. She opened and closed her mouth a few times in shock before she managed to gather her thoughts and form actual words again. "Why is Oliver shirtless and tied to a chair?!" In the two seconds it took to voice her question the older alpha's expression went from 'mildly annoyed' to 'if someone doesn't give me an honest and reasonable answer I will throw you through a window.'

"He poisoned you," Derek replied.

"That doesn't mean you kidnap him and tie him to a chair!"

"I didn't kidnap him. He showed up here armed to the teeth pretending to be the pizza guy," the beta argued.

"You tracked my phone! What is wrong with you?!" Felicity asked, turning her attention back to Oliver. "Do you have any idea how paranoid they are? Not that the paranoia isn't justified, but still."

Oliver tried to respond to his friend's questions but unfortunately there was still duct tape on his mouth so it came out as a very garbled "mmhhhmm huum baahhh huummm duuu dmmm."

"I don't suppose anyone here is fluent in duct tape?" Stiles joked.

"Can someone please remove the duct tape and untie him?" Felicity groaned. "This was supposed to be a vacation. A quiet time of relaxation filled with annoying the crap out of the people I care about and sorting out all of the stuff that's collecting dust in multiple storage units." Suddenly Felicity's face turned green and she looked like something sour was in her mouth, which was when Isaac handed her an empty bucket followed closely by the blonde vomiting thick black tar like substance.

"Thanks cub," Felicity moaned when the puking stopped.

"Scott, let me see your phone," Derek said holding out his hand.

"What are you doing?" Felicity asked.

"I'm doing what I should have done after you collapsed," Derek replied.

"What's that supposed to-" only to stop herself mid-sentence by vomiting again.

Isaac was torn between wanting to comfort the blonde and untying the new alpha's friend. Allison seemed to realize his dilemma and went over to untie Oliver leaving Isaac free to comfort Felicity and take away some of her pain. He slowly led the alpha over to the couch.

"It's Derek," the beta said quietly into the phone. "We have a bit of a situation. Is there any way you could stop by the loft?"

"Who are you talking to?" His sister groaned a little louder.

"Thank you. Just text when Scott when you get here and I'll buzz you in," he replied into the phone, ignoring his sister's comment. He gave Scott his phone back. "Deaton said he'd be here in a few minutes."

"No!" Felicity exclaimed, trying to bolt from her spot on the couch, only to trip over the quilt and flail aimlessly while trying to not fall over. Thankfully Isaac caught her and she managed to right herself. "Where's my stuff?"

"Felicity, please," Derek began. "Just let Deaton check you over."

"I don't want him near me. You said get checked out by a doctor and I did. Morell said I would be fine. A few days rest and I'll be as good as new," She argued.

"Morell also said if you were still puking black toxic crap in twelve hours to take you to the clinic," Derek pointed out.

"Felicity, maybe you should listen to him," Oliver replied, getting up from the chair and rubbing his wrists where he had been bound.

"You don't get an opinion," Felicity told him. "Or do I need to remind you of how we became friends Mr. I refuse to go to a hospital? And I am still pissed at you for tracking my phone."

"If you didn't want me to track your phone then why didn't you hang up when Dig called?" Oliver asked.

"What are you talking about? John called to ask where I kept that stupid book, and then I hung up the phone after saying I wouldn't be back until Wednesday. I distinctly remember hanging up my phone," she told him.

"Technically you didn't," Isaac pointed out. Everyone quickly turned their head to look at the normally stoic beta. "After you fainted I found your phone on the ground and it was still connected to that guy you were talking to. I hung up when I figured it out, but that was several minutes after you said you wouldn't be leaving until Wednesday."

"I'm just going to go crawl back upstairs with my bucket and die now," Felicity said, grabbing the handle of the bucket and walking over to the stairs.

"Felicity," Derek called after her.

"What?!" she snapped.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your boyfriend?" Derek asked.

"You're such a dick!" she replied without turning around.

"I love you too sis," he called after her with a small smile. He turned around to face Oliver after he heard his sister's door slam shut and the smile left his features.

"We're not dating," Oliver said.

"Good," Derek replied. "Because if you were I'd have to kill you, and then I'd have to move because your blood would ruin my flooring. But since you're not dating Isaac and I just get to take turns maiming you."

"Play nice boys," Lydia chided, not looking up from the smart phone in her hand. "I'm sure Felicity is perfectly capable of fighting her battles without her brothers' assistance. Besides we're running out of room in the preserve to bury more dead bodies."

"Alright, who's hungry? I know I am," Stiles said, trying to break the tension in the room. He walked over to the pile of pizza boxes and started opening them and handing them to their respective owners. "Guys, where are my curly fries?"

"Pizza hut doesn't have curly fires, they have waffle fries," Aiden told him. "They're practically the same thing."

The kid looked scandalized by the twin's comment, so scandalized he dropped the pizza box he was holding and it landed on the ground with a loud 'thwap'. "Take it back!" Stiles gasped in shock.

"It's true," Aiden replied. "Same batter, same type of potatoes, the only difference is the cut. Ask anybody."

"Scott make him stop speaking blasphemy," Stiles nearly whined.

"Dude, he kind of has a point," Scott admitted sheepishly. "And it's not like that Diner on 7th doesn't deliver. If you really want curly fries that bad, just place an order."

"Oh yeah," Stiles remembered, immediately perking up and pulling his phone out of his pocket to do as his friend suggested.

"Look, I don't mean to intrude on whatever this is, but who exactly are you people? And what in the hell is going on?" Oliver asked.

"Was I this demanding before I knew what was going on?" Lydia asked, briefly looking up from whatever she was doing.

"Demanding, no," Allison replied. "Skeptical and silently inquisitive, yes."

"Again, can somebody please explain what is going on?" Oliver questioned again.

"I preferred it when he was gagged," Aiden commented.

"Of course you did, because aside from Felicity you're all crazy," Oliver finally snapped.

"This coming from the person who pretended to be the pizza guy so he could trespass with two illegal weapons, and two more weapons all of them illegally concealed on his person," Derek shot back with a glare. "I'm not sure if you've noticed this or not but my sister is the only reason we didn't hand you over to the police and from what I can tell she's not too happy with you right now, and let's not forget the fact that you nearly got her killed twelve hours ago."

"I'm not the one she was trying to get away from."

"Ok boys," Lydia sighed in annoyance. "Back to your corners." She placed one hand on each man's shoulder and attempted to separate them, but when they didn't budge she switched tactics. "Allison, a hand if you will."

Allison removed two daggers and swiftly pressed both up against their carotid arteries, successfully drawing the males' attention from each other to the blades at their throats. "Now that we have your attention if you would please direct your attention to Allison," Lydia said in a bored tone. "She will kindly explain to you both what is going to happen to you both if you decide to continue this boyish pissing match you seem so preoccupied by."

"These blades, which I happen to care about more than you two right now require less than ¼ lb. of pressure to nick your carotid arteries. But that won't kill you, at least not outright, no what's really special about these aside from being sharpened every day for twenty minutes is that afterwards they're dipped in liquid aconite and left to soak for six hours. The particular strand I've chosen this week is from South America courtesy of Cora. I know for a fact that Derek will make it for at least an hour once he's cut, but you I'm not so sure about. Could be seconds, could be minutes, maybe even half an hour if you're really really lucky. These were supposed to be a precautionary measure in case the evil twins decided to do anything stupid, but right now your squabbling is much more cumbersome to the overall situation. So boys, what will it be? Can we stop acting like four year olds and get our shit together, or should I go ahead and have Lydia call an ambulance?"

Derek and Oliver silently held eye contact, neither of them moving or blinking, both waiting for the other to admit defeat, while Allison simply waited them out with practiced ease. But after ninety seconds Lydia took pity on Derek and decided to throw her fellow pack member a bone. She simply pressed the smart phone in her hand up against Oliver's chest and held it there until he looked at it. He wasn't sure when exactly the red head had gotten his phone or even how but considering how warm it was to the touch she had obviously hacked it and gotten what she needed from it.

"Thank you for giving us access to the Knaylev database. I'm sure their research will come in handy at some point in the future. And if they do show up we'll be sure to send them your regards," she grinned. "You should also change your password. Who even uses a color as a password now a days?"

Oliver took his phone and glanced back at Derek who had a smug look on his face as he stepped back. If Oliver didn't know any better he'd say Derek was almost preening.

"DEREK! What did you do with my computer and my tablet? I'm going into tech withdraw, I need to hack something!"

"They're in the one place you hate more than Deaton's office!" he replied.

Felicity's door slammed into the upstairs wall and she practically flew down the staircase. If everyone hadn't seen it themselves they probably wouldn't have believed it. The only person who wasn't fazed by his sister's new found speed was Derek and he had a smirk on his face.

"You didn't. You're bluffing," She assumed.

"I wouldn't be too sure of that. I noticed you went with the surface pro 2. Intel i7, 2.7 GHz, 8 gb of ram, probably set you back quite a bit, not even taking into account the aftermarket modifications you made, and let's not forget about the small fortune you invested in your laptop."

"Where is my tech?" Felicity growled.

"Which specific components are you looking for exactly?"

Oliver's eyes widened and he quietly muttered "shit," under his breath.

The female alpha was shaking in anger. Oliver had never seen his friend this angry and it was more than a little bit scary. He was just glad that her anger wasn't directed towards him at the moment, everyone else in the room knew exactly what was happening. Felicity was about shift and she was fighting it tooth and nail. They all remembered what Derek had told them about his eldest sister not wanting her friends to find out what she was, and now one of her friends was here watching the two wolves about to lose control and fight for dominance.

There was sudden loud noise coming from outside of the apartment.

"Stay behind me," Derek said, turning around so he was standing between Felicity and the door. Everyone else in the room got into a defensive stance.

"Oh Nephew! Be a good boy and open the door, my arms are a little full," Peter said. "Preferably before I knock it down."

"I'm going to kill him," Felicity said.

"There's a line," Allison replied.

"I'm getting impatient!" Peter drawled loudly. "Also Deaton is here and he looks very pissed off, and I know he's not mad at me!"

"God Damnit," Felicity grumbled, shuffling over to the large door and slowly pulling it open. "I fucking hate you."

"Aww, how's my favorite human niece? I heard you haven't been feeling well. Does little Lissy have the sniffles?" Peter asked in a mocking baby voice.

"If I weren't sick right now-" Felicity began.

"Hush now," Peter interrupted. "We both know there isn't a violent bone in that weak fragile little form of yours. Besides, don't you want to see what I brought you as a welcome home gift?"

"Is it watching you choke to death?" she asked.

"Now I remember why we don't talk more," Peter replied, setting three of the boxes down on the ground next to the kitchen island where the food was. "You never could appreciate my sense of humor."

"I'm sorry I don't find mutilating bodies amusing, or that I don't go around on killing sprees because of my anger issues," She snapped. "What can I say, I'm not a sick pyscho-fuck like you and Isaiah."

"You wound me, Felicity," he continued to mock. "That hit me right here, right in the heart."

"You don't have one," she growled.

"Then I guess you don't want these files I procured from the Sheriff's station," Peter said. "Oh well. Good luck trying to get daddy dearest's remains out of holding, because without the paperwork, you can't bury him. No paperwork, no body, no funeral, and no access to the vault."

Felicity turned to look at Derek, silently asking if he was certain killing Peter was a bad idea.

"We don't kill family," Derek reminded her. "And he's only doing this so he can get a rise out of you."

"Also, why is there a shirtless hunter in the living room?" Peter wondered.

"Oliver, this is crazy creepy evil Uncle Peter," Felicity introduced. "Waste of space who should be dead, this is my friend Oliver. I'm not sure why he's shirtless." She shuffled back over to the kitchen island and began to make herself a cup of tea. When she had opened three different cabinets, unable to find the tea she decided to give in and ask for help. "Derek, where is that tea Mom used to make? The smelly one?"

"Storage," Derek answered. "And unless you would like to introduce yourself to Satomi Ito, I would suggest that you stick with Gatorade."

She glared at him. "I'm cold."

"Campbell's chicken noodle in the pantry," he answered. "And no, you're not staying up to go through the files. You finish your soup and after Deaton checks you over, you're going back to bed."

"What about Dad's funeral?"

"Deucalion already said he would make the arrangements. He even called Aunt Clara, who happened to agree with me about getting checked over by Deaton," he added.

"Six years and you still know every button to push," she glared. "I'm not sure if I should be proud or pissed off."

"Considering I learned from you, I'm leaning towards pride," her brother smirked. There was another knock on the door, only difference was that this time only one person in the loft immediately went on the defensive. "That's Deaton, now cook your soup and eat your lunch," Derek chided, before going over to the door to let Deaton in.

"You should probably put a shirt on," Felicity said aloud to Oliver. "Unless you want everyone to continue to stare at you?"

"If I put on a shirt do I get to know everyone's names?" Oliver asked.

"Don't play stupid, Oliver," Felicity replied. "They can tell when you're lying."

"That still doesn't tell me anything," Oliver argued. "Other than they're all paranoid."

"Which you should have figured out by now," the other blonde added. "I told you they were paranoid, and if you want to be technical about it, it's not paranoia if it's justified."

"Why are you acting like this?" Oliver asked. "It's like you're a completely different person right now."

"Maybe I'm acting like this because my friends don't trust me enough to go away for a few days to visit my family without feeling the need to follow me," she nearly snapped.

"Or she's on edge because of the extra adrenaline pushing the toxin out of her system at an accelerated rate," Deaton replied in a calm tone. "Or its lack of sleep. I won't know for certain until I've done a full work up."

"You can start with the four buckets of vomit," Felicity told him with a glare.

Deaton sighed and rubbed his forehead for a moment, taking everything in the room in and trying to assess the situation he had only recently been informed of. "I had hoped that we could do this like civilized beings," the vet began.

"Go fuck yourself. How's that for civilized?" Felicity asked. She dropped the blanket and went from struggling to find the energy to move to frantically pacing around the room only briefly stopping to shove her feet into tennis shoes.

Peter was watching his niece with a strange fascination, like he was trying to figure something out, while Derek, Isaac, and Oliver were clearly more worried about the blonde. Lydia and Allison were being more analytical, and choosing to simply observe, while Scott and Stiles simply looked out of place. The only one who didn't really seem to care was Aiden and he was sitting on the couch eating an entire pizza by himself.

"Perhaps Lis and I could have the room," Deaton suggested.

"I'm sorry did you not hear me a second ago?" Felicity asked. "I don't want you here or anywhere near me. In fact I would rather spend quality time with Peter than you."

"Ms. Hale I understand that you're upset-" Deaton tried again.

"Upset? You think I'm upset?! You realize that every time I have come back to this hell hole it's been to identify the body of someone I loved right. My sister, my father, my uncle, and let me tell you, I am tired of visiting the morgue and I am tired of funerals! If you really wanted to help me, you'd build a time machine and worry more about the people you were supposed to be helping instead of whether or not your family legacy was still intact," she hissed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get Cora from the airport. I'm sure you remember her, the girl you could've saved and wouldn't."

"Ms. Hale I need to insist-" Deaton tried again.

"That's not my name!" Felicity snapped spinning around to glare at the emissary. "Felicity Hale is dead. She died more than twenty-five years ago, she doesn't exist anymore, and the fact that you're failing to acknowledge that says more than your fake concern for my well-being. So do me a favor and stay the hell away from me before you start something you can't finish." She quickly headed back towards the front door only stopping momentarily to grab a jacket from the coat rack, before exiting the loft.

Oliver noticed that the two males that had been identified as Felicity's siblings were having a silent conversation of their own with nothing but their facial expressions which was over in less than a few seconds. The younger of the two quickly followed the angry blonde out of the apartment along with the girl who had held a knife to his throat, and they were both carrying mop buckets. "Can I have my belongings back please?" Oliver asked.

"I'm leaning towards no," Peter admitted with a smirk. "Not before you tell me what you're connection to my niece is."

"Peter," Derek warned, raising an eyebrow.

"You can't tell me you're a little bit curious," Peter replied. "For all we know he's baiting the poor girl like Kate baited you, a snake waiting patiently to strike when we least expect it."

"Felicity trusts him," Derek said. "And for now, that's good enough for me." He turned towards Oliver, "Let me get you a shirt." The man quickly went up the spiral staircase and he heard a door slam.

"So how did you meet Lis? I can't imagine you run in similar social circles," Peter continued to pry.

"It's not our business," Scott said in a warning tone. "Back off."

"I'm simply trying to look out for the safety of one of the few family members I have left," Peter replied in defense of his actions. "Nothing you wouldn't do for Stiles or your mother."

"I don't think Felicity would appreciate it," Stiles replied coldly. "How did Cora put it after Derek and Ennis got into that fight? Oh, that's right, Uncle Peter killed Sister Laura."

Oliver's eyes widened slightly at the new information, making a note to ask Felicity about it later.

"I served my time," Peter shot back.

"Not enough of it," Lydia replied dryly, inspecting her nails closely.

The group stood around the loft in silence before Derek came back down the stairs with a spare t-shirt. He tossed it at the archer who caught it with his left hand, and carefully slipped it over his head. Oliver nodded in thanks; that's when he noticed a back pack in the other man's grasp.

"Here's her laptop and tablet," Derek said, handing him the bag. "I threw in an extra change of clothes and her favorite sweat shirt. Make sure she gets it, and she doesn't take any more of that crap you gave her."

"If I'd known what it would do I never would have let her take some," Oliver said.

"You're both lucky she's not dead or worse," Deaton said. The man was leaning over the bucket that Felicity had puked in earlier, using a cotton swab to collect samples. "She indicated there were other buckets."

"They're upstairs," Derek replied.

"I'll need samples," the doctor said. "From the looks of this, I don't think the infection is the only issue." He carefully took note of the people in the room and began making mental calculations, but his train of thought stopped when his gaze landed on the strange. "I'll also need a blood sample from him," he pointed to Oliver.

"No," Oliver immediately objected. He wasn't sure why he had objected, or even registered that words had come out of his mouth, but that feeling in his gut was back. The same feeling he got when he was looking at an enemy of the Arrow as Oliver Queen. A similar feeling to what had pushed him and the team to come here.

"You do realize that by refusing to help, your friend could seriously injure herself further. Do you really want to be the reason she dies?" he questioned.

Oliver clenched his jaw, biting his sudden anger down and trying to figure out a way to leave without having to fight the room's other occupants. "I don't know you; I don't trust you, and in the two minutes we've been standing here you haven't given me a single reason to help you, so the better question is, why should I believe anything you say?" He picked up his coat off of the floor and slung the bag Derek had given him over his good shoulder, pausing momentarily on his way out to add something else, "And if you think for a second that this is going to beat Felicity, you obviously don't know her very well. Enjoy the pizza."

* * *

"Are you John Diggle?" the very timid teenager asked.

John wasn't entirely sure what to expect when he heard rapid knocking on the door to his hotel room, but finding a scared and possibly high teenager asking for him by name was not it. The kid was tall, curly blonde hair, and had a slight build to him. He looked like he could handle himself in a fight if he had to, but after a second of closer observation the veteran recognized the behavior for what it was, having seen it far too many times before. "Yes, what's this about?" he politely inquired.

"We spoke on the phone, you called asking for my sister," he replied quickly. "I'm sorry for just dropping by. Felicity said you could help and she won't go back to Derek's and Deucalion is still held up at the station and she was tracking your phone."

"Where is she?" John asked, taking a step out the door and looking down the hallway.

"She took the elevator with a friend," he replied. "I'm claustrophobic so I took the stairs."

"We're on the sixth floor," John replied.

"A friend of mine lives on the eighth floor, I'm used to the walk," he replied.

John nodded and quickly grabbed his room key off of the coffee table before following the boy to the elevator. "You're Isaac?" John double checked, and the boy nodded.

They stopped in front of the elevator right as it was approaching their floor and when it beeped and the doors swung open John was surprised to see Felicity barely managing to hold herself up with an arm slung across another girl's shoulders who was holding a mop bucket. Isaac immediately went over to Felicity's other side and slung her other arm over his shoulders.

"Why are you so heavy?" Allison asked.

"I'm 120lbs of badass alpha werewolf," Felicity smiled.

John's eyes quickly widened and looked at the two teenagers who were wearing similar expressions to his told him they had no idea why she'd said that.

"I said that out loud, didn't I?" Felicity assumed. "Really need to work on my verbal filter."

"Where's Oliver? We dropped him off outside where you were staying?" Diggle asked.

"Oliver showed up with four illegally concealed weapons on him, two of which you need a license to simply own," Felicity stated. "So naturally Derek tied him to a chair and Stiles cut his shirt off after someone knocked him unconscious, not quite sure who."

"Actually, I was the one who cut off his shirt," Allison admitted.

"Does she cut off your shirt often?" Felicity asked Isaac.

Isaac seemed to actually be contemplating his answer for a second before Allison replied for him. "Isaac, don't even think about it."

"Kinky," Felicity noted. "Hang on to her."

"I really don't want to continue this topic of conversation," Isaac stated.

"I think you're making them uncomfortable," Diggle added, opening the door to the room.

"Having sex is nothing to be ashamed of cub," Felicity said. "It's a natural part of life, the birds and the bees, or in our case the pups and the kits."

"Please stop talking," Isaac nearly begged. "Please."

"Where's Sara?" Felicity asked, changing the topic. "Didn't she come with you guys?"

"She's downstairs in the hotel gym," John replied. "Now let's get you lying down and then maybe you can explain what happened and why you left Oliver behind." He pulled some of the decorative pillows off of one of the beds and pulled back the covers, indicating Felicity should lie down and rest.

"Do I have to?" the alpha asked.

"Humor me," Diggle replied with a small smile.

"Fine," she whined, before Isaac helped her over to the bed and tucked her in, leaving the bucket by the side in case she got sick again. "I left Oliver at Derek's apartment, mainly because I left rather quickly and unexpectedly."

"She stormed out," Allison added.

"I should probably call Deucalion at some point, let him know I left the loft."

"Should I call Ms. Morell?" Isaac asked. "Since we aren't really following the doctor's orders anymore? Or what if it gets worse? Or what if Peter followed us?"

"Isaac, sit down cub," Felicity said. "I'm going to be fine. You heard what Morell said, it's an infection, nothing to worry about. Once the toxin is out of my system I'll be fine. There's a tub in the bathroom, we're right next to the hotel ice maker, and there is an empty bucket within reach. I'm sore, tired, and while I'm angry and I want to strangle Peter and Deaton, I know better. I'm ok."

Isaac turned to Dig who he felt probably knew Felicity better than him, despite legally being considered her sibling in a court of law. "Is the strangling thing a common recurrence?"

"You'd be surprised how often it pops up," John answered. "Granted most of the time she wants to strangle Oliver."

"So threatening friends and family and not meaning it when agitated, is that genetic or a learned behavior?" Allison wondered with a teasing smile.

"I'm surprised you even have to ask," Felicity admitted with a laugh. The blonde suddenly turned a pale shade of green and quickly rolled onto her stomach before vomiting more black bile into the bucket. "Maybe I should go sit in the bathroom," she groaned, before puking again. "Can I have a tissue or a paper towel please?" She didn't look up from the floor, obviously self-conscious about what was covering her face and dripping vomit onto the carpet or anything else in the hotel room.

"Yeah," John nodded as he began looking around the room. "Sara made us stop at a gas station for Doritos on the way over late last night and I grabbed a whole bunch of napkins. Now if I could just find them."

Allison reached into her jacket pocket pulling out a few crumpled tissues and handed them to the blonde. "Here," she offered politely.

"Thanks," the alpha replied, carefully wiping away the black sludge like bile from her mouth and tossing the dirty wad into the trash can next to the bed. "When we get back I am burning every ounce of that shit in the furnace," Felicity groaned. She slowly got up and was leaning heavily on Isaac for support as the beta assisted her into the bathroom and helped her sit down on the edge of the tub so that she was leaning over the toilet bowl.

"I think Sara already beat you to it," John told her. "Oliver tried to take some the other night and I saw Sara throw the entire bag, the mortar, and the pestle into the furnace before we left, and this was before we knew it was toxic."

"I'm going to need to remember to write her a thank you card," Felicity smiled momentarily before puking into the toilet while Isaac held her hair and rubbed her back. The alpha could feel the beta taking away her pain through his touch and she made a mental note to talk to him about moderation when she didn't feel like she had gotten hit by a truck.

Allison quickly stuck her head through the bathroom doorway, "Isaac, can I talk to you out in the hallway for a second?"

Isaac's brow furrowed in confusion and he looked to Felicity, silently asking if it was ok for him to leave her side for a few minutes.

"Go," Felicity told him. "I'll be fine. I promise not to fall on the floor and die while you're gone." Isaac instinctually flinched at her comment before he could even fully process the humorous tone in which it was said. "Too soon?"

"Too soon," Isaac agreed. He quickly stood up and took a few steps before looking back at the other wolf. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

When Diggle heard the door shut he felt it was safe to start asking his friend questions without having someone butt in, not that he was going to push things far, but he hoped Felicity was comfortable enough with him to answer some of the questions he had. "So that's the younger brother?"

"One of them," Felicity nodded.

"You haven't mentioned him before?"

"Isaac was/is in the foster system. My other brother Derek took him in after Isaac's father was murdered. Derek had offered before then, but Isaac never took him up on it. His adoption should have been finalized a couple of months ago, but when Deucalion came to visit he caused some chaos and Isaac and Derek got into a huge fight. We were all supposed to talk with Isaac about if he still wanted to go through the adoption process but it seems fate had other plans," the blonde explained. "I worry about him sometimes, and despite Derek being an idiot and refusing to speak to him about what happened, I still think of Isaac as a younger sibling; I think there's a part of me that always will."

"I'm sure he feels similar," Diggle told her. "He introduced himself as family, which tells me that he considers you a sibling too." He smiled at her grabbed a washcloth off of the bathroom counter and wetting it before handing it to his friend. "Have you talked to your sister, Cora?"

"She texted me when we were on the way over," Felicity answered. "Her flight was cancelled, and she said not to expect her for a couple of days, that she would try to make it for the funeral, but the circumstances were out of her control. I don't think her guardian wanted her to come here. Deucalion has a bit of a reputation. I imagine they would rather have her safe and angry than possibly in danger and slightly morose."

"You want to talk about it?" John questioned.

"I'm not really in the mood for an inquisition," she joked.

"I'm sure Oliver is probably going to be upset for telling you this, but after you left on Friday I found Oliver trying to hack into several federal databases and pull up all of the information they had on Deucalion," John told her. "And I'm pretty sure one of them belonged to ARGUS."

"You're right, you shouldn't have told me," Felicity replied with a small groan. "I can only imagine what they have on Deucalion, I had to give Officer Lance a fifty dollar gift card just to get a copy of Deucalion's file from the precinct and it was two inches thick."

"ARGUS doesn't have anything," John told her.

"Oh god, Oliver probably used the entire months' worth of paper simply trying to print it off. What was it, four or five boxes? I can't imagine it being more than six," the tech continued not realizing what her friend had said.

"Felicity," John interrupted her. "ARGUS doesn't have anything. Someone wiped their files of any and all information concerning Deucalion and all of his known associates, including everything they had on you and your father."

"But I didn't do it," she said while she looked at him in confusion.

"I have a feeling if you had we wouldn't be having this conversation," John told her. "ARGUS is serious about their security being compromised. Whoever did it is probably in Gitmo or in a body bag. And from your tone I'm guessing you had no idea who could do something that big."

"I can't even think of anyone who would want to do that," the blonde alpha admitted. "I don't even want to do that."

That was when they both heard a loud 'THUD' noise and stopped talking so they could listen for anything else that was suspicious. John didn't act as if he had heard anything else, and while Felicity had learned to use her heightened senses, right now they were virtually inaccessible due to the pain and disorienting feelings.

Their silence was interrupted again by the blonde making herself so nauseous from concentrating too hard that she began vomiting more black tar like substance into the toilet. Vomiting was the last thing she remembered.

* * *

"I think we need to call my dad," Allison said hurriedly as soon as Isaac shut the door to the hotel room so they could talk privately in the hallway.

Isaac silently raised one eyebrow in skepticism.

"Look," Allison handed him one of the crumpled tissues Felicity had used. "Tell me that doesn't look familiar."

Isaac normally would have been slightly grossed out holding someone else's dirty tissue but the second he looked at it he realized Allison's point. They had seen this before, in fact most of the pack had. "Mountain ash," he said quietly.

Allison didn't know what to think about the eldest Hale, they had barely exchanged more than ten words with one another but in the few words they had said an understanding had been reached. It was very obvious that they both cared about Isaac, Felicity as a sibling and Allison as more than that, and the huntress could tell that Felicity was one of the few people Isaac positively responded to. There was some type of familial bond between the two wolves, and whatever they had talked about earlier had cemented it in place. Which is why she had to be the one to make sure Isaac understood what was at stake.

"There is a very good chance that this could kill her," Allison stated simply. "And if it doesn't she'll wind up paralyzed and living in a home with a room next to Gerard's."

"Morell said she'd be fine," Isaac tried to argue weakly. "She said she'd be ok."

"Which is why I think we should talk to my dad," Allison added. "He knows more about druids and werewolves than anyone. Maybe he knows another way to help. Or why Morell seemed to think she'd be ok."

Isaac nodded wordlessly in agreement while the rest of his brain tried to gather up the pieces he knew and the new ones Allison had put in front of him to try and figure out what was going on. "Go see what he says. I'll stay with her."

Allison simply nodded, before heading back to the elevator to go up the few floors to her apartment. Once he was sure she was out of earshot, Isaac leaned against the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the floor, with his hands on his knees, wondering why his wolf was pushing him to act, pushing him to care about his former alpha's sister.

He wasn't sure how long he sat there, he reasoned it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, but when he heard the elevator signal that it was stopped he started to stand, expecting Allison to have talked to her father about what was happening. He got up from his spot on the floor and looked up to see the man from the apartment looking down on him, Oliver.

"You ok kid?" Oliver asked placing a comforting hand on the teenager's shoulder, only for him to flinch violently and rip himself out of the man's grasp as if Oliver's touch had burned.

"Don't touch me," Isaac said, eying the stranger warily.

"Ok," Oliver replied questioningly. The older blonde took a slight step back, but made no move to leave the teenager alone. "Look, I didn't know what that stuff would do to Felicity-"

Isaac quickly cut Oliver off by grabbing the front of the man's shirt and slamming him up against the wall and holding him a few inches off of the ground. "What gives you the right?!" the teenager snarled.

Oliver was fighting his base instincts right now; being dangled in the air by a teenager who he probably outweighed by least forty lbs. was not something he was accustomed to and normally he would be fighting back, but this was a member of Felicity's family. A very angry and upset member who blamed him for Felicity's pain and if the teenager's current expression was anything to go by, his friend's condition was already deteriorating like the rude doctor had tried to warn him about earlier. "Look, kid-"

"Stop Calling Me That! I'm not a child, and I'm not your friend. So what gives you the right to come here and mess with my friends, hurt my family, my a-" the teenager stopped mid word. He let go of Oliver, took a few steps back, and clenched his shaking fists a few times before he stared at the floor like he just realized something horrible.

"Isaac?" Allison asked quietly. The teenager looked at his friend questioningly, hoping that his expression would explain what had happened, what he had realized. "My dad is getting the car. We need to get Felicity to the clinic. We can call Derek on the way."

Isaac nodded mutely, choosing not to acknowledge what had happened and knocked politely on the hotel room door, only to see John open the door covered in black blood, holding a limp Felicity in his arms. "We need to get her to a hospital."

Isaac took Felicity's body out of John's arms and practically ran to the elevators with the humans on his heels. Thankfully the doors opened as he rounded the corner and a confused woman stepped out only to step back into the elevator when Isaac entered. "Parking garage," he said, while Allison barely made it through the doors before they closed and the two men following close behind were forced to take the stairs.

"Isaac, right?" The woman asked. "Sara. I'm a friend of Felicity's." She started to offer her hand for the teenager to shake, when she stopped herself realizing it probably wasn't the best idea.

"You don't seem at all surprised your friend is bleeding black blood?" Allison questioned. "Or that Isaac is carrying her like a rag doll."

"My girlfriend is going on 250," Sara replied. "I'm good with weird."

"She's not lying," Isaac realized. The two teenagers just stared at each other in shock for a moment before glancing back at the other human.

"I'm assuming you're both headed to some type of medical facility? Do you mind if I tag along? Peace of mind and all that," she supplied.

"You don't think we would take her to a medical facility to get help?" Allison questioned.

"I think- scratch that- I  _know_  Oliver is going to do something stupid and rash, because obviously if you both are here and you blocked him from the elevator, he didn't listen to John and I about apologizing and being nice when he went to where Felicity was staying." Sara explained.

"Four illegally concealed weapons, and he sort of called us crazy," Isaac supplied.

"Not to mention the fact he lied about who he was upon entering the building," Allison added. "And he never actually apologized, just said we were paranoid and then gave us evil looks."

The woman sighed in annoyance. "I swear there are times that man could make a nun commit murder."

"Look, you seem very nice," Allison began. "But as you've probably noticed this thing isn't normal, which means we can't take Felicity to any hospital. There is a place where she can be treated but I have a feeling if we take you and those other guys, they'll have more questions than answers, and we can't answer those questions. We don't have the right, because they're not our secrets to tell. So as much as we would like to let you tag along, we can't."

Sara seemed to think over their logic for a second before nodding in understanding. "Eight hours. If Felicity's not back or at least called by then, I can't be held responsible for the guys and whatever they decide to do."

Thankfully the elevator doors opened on the underground parking floor and Allison's dad had pulled their SUV as close to the elevator as possible. Chris had already opened up the tailgate and pulled out blankets so they could keep the unconscious wolf covered and lowered the back seats so the teenagers could sit with her.

"Thank you," Allison told her sincerely. "I know how hard it is to take a leap of faith at times."

They quickly loaded Felicity into the back of the SUV and they both hopped in the back, while Sara just stood by the elevator making sure they were ok, without invading their space. Right when Chris started the engine with a muffled roar, and Allison had closed the bottom of the trunk, Isaac stopped her from closing the back hatch.

"Sara," he called out. "You're a good pack member. I'm glad Felicity has you as a friend."

Sara just waved somewhat confusedly as they exited the garage at a speed that probably wasn't legal. "Ok, that was weird," she admitted out loud. "Now I just have to keep Oliver from doing anything else really stupid." She paused for a minute, as if she were thinking over the best course of action for handling their friend. "I really hope Felicity turned her phone off."

* * *

"The toxin has entered her blood stream," Deaton told them. "She'll need a transplant and a set of blood transfusions within the next few hours or else her organs will begin to shut down."

Derek, Allison, Lydia, and Isaac were in the exam room of the clinic while Felicity was resting on the exam table. Derek had his arms crossed over his chest and his ever present scowl adorning his features. Isaac looked like he was about to start chewing through his claws he was chewing on his fingernails so much. Allison was there to make sure Isaac didn't break down, and Lydia had Cora on speaker phone, because she couldn't get a flight out of South America until later the next morning. And all four of them looked like they wanted to strangle the emissary.

"What kind of transplant?" Cora asked.

"She needs the claws of another alpha. Assuming she is strong enough to survive the initial infection the toxin will begin to build up in her claws making them essentially use. We can use another alpha's claws to pull the toxin out of her blood," Deaton told them. "Then after a set of transfusions, her abilities should return to normal in a matter of hours. Unfortunately the process would render that set of claws virtually useless. They would no longer be able to hold genetic memory, access another's genetic memory, or transfer memories in either direction."

"Deucalion could do it," Isaac said. "He said he'd help, and Felicity is his successor. She'd have to take his power anyway."

"That's not what Deaton's suggesting," Derek growled.

"We can't let Scott do it," Allison replied.

"He's not suggesting that either. He wants us to cut off Felicity's connection to her parents," Cora said icily. "And if he thinks we're going to ok this then I'll gut him myself when I get there Monday."

"There isn't another option," Deaton began.

"Of course there is, you just hate it," Derek snapped. "You're covering your own ass instead of doing what you should have done twenty-five years ago!"

"What do you mean?" Isaac asked. "What do you mean when you say he's covering for himself?"

"In order for testimony to be accepted in pack disputes there have to be two witnesses. Two stories independent of each other and still conveying the same evidence. Our mother's claws hold one set and Felicity's father's claws hold the other. If we use either set of claws to save her life there's a good chance she'll be sentenced to die even if she does survive the transplant," Derek explained. "Not to mention the personal repercussions."

"SO what's the other option?" Allison asked.

"We break Deucalion out of the Sheriff's station," Lydia realized.

"Couldn't we get a court order or something?" Isaac said. "I'm sure if we explained to whoever is holding him, we could get an armed escort until the transplant is done, then he can go back into holding. You already said he was innocent."

"I already tried to get Deucalion out," Derek admitted. "I didn't know it would get this bad then, but if we try and appeal to a judge or even a crooked agent with the bureau, Deucalion won't be released in time. Lydia's right, we're out of legal options."

"Not to be the bearer of bad news, but how exactly are we going to break out a person of interest in a high profile case without being caught? If we do this without a plan it's basically suicide, not to mention that it makes Deucalion look incredibly guilty for a crime he didn't commit," the banshee pointed out.

While the weight of Lydia's words seemed to set in with the other two teenagers, Derek was trying to come up with a plan that didn't involve getting arrested himself or getting the Sheriff into more trouble, little did the werewolf know his sister had already beat him to it.

"I think we should call him," Cora said. "You know, Felicity's friend in green."

"We're not calling him," Derek argued. "We don't need his help for this."

"Derek, everyone in the Sheriff station knows what we look like, what our friends look like, not to mention that the Sheriff, the person who would normally help us out in this situation, is under investigation for impeachment," Cora told him. "We need his help, and the fact he can't be traced back to any of us if he gets caught is just a bonus."

"And you realize if he gets caught Felicity is going to kill us," Derek reminded his youngest sibling.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Cora said. "Now stop being a baby and go talk to Felicity's friends. If anyone besides Felicity knows how to contact him, it would be them." After a second of silence there was a dial tone on the other end of the phone Lydia had been holding, letting them know Cora had hung up on them.

"Exactly how much time do we have before the transplant will be ineffective?" Derek asked the vet.

"I'd estimate 3am at the latest. The procedure itself could take anywhere from twenty minutes to 3 hours," Deaton answered.

"Sunset is at six," Derek said more for himself than anyone else. "For complete concealment we need to wait until at least seven, that gives us a five hour window to get Deucalion out of the station, and it's a four hour jet ride from Starling City."

"It's manageable," Lydia concluded, having caught on to what the wolves were talking about.

Derek nodded. "Isaac, Allison, you're with me. Lydia can you get Stiles and Danny to the penthouse?" The red head nodded in agreement. "Good. Deaton, do you still have the number for the information line?"

"It's in my office," the vet told him.

Derek quickly grabbed a piece of scrap paper and a pen and wrote a string of numbers down. "This is a one-time access code. Tell them everything you need and have them set it up at the penthouse." Derek handed the man the paper, but when Deaton grabbed it, the wolf didn't let go. "If I find out you used this code for anything other than this procedure or you do anything that will hinder our sister's chances of recovering or surviving I will bury you somewhere not even blood magic will be able to find you. Are we clear?"

"Do I need to remind you that I took an oath?" Deaton asked.

"You've broken it before," Derek replied. "I just want to make sure you understand the consequences if you choose to break it again. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

* * *

"We would appreciate it if you would contact the Arrow," Derek told the three humans. "We need his help, or rather Felicity needs his help."

It had been a relatively silent first few minutes. After Allison, Derek, and Isaac had entered the hotel room the three human stared at the strangers quizzically as they set about sweeping for bugs and laying a protective border over the doorway and the windows. If the other adults knew what they were doing they didn't say anything, and if they didn't they also didn't ask questions, at least until Derek opened his mouth.

"Excuse me?" Oliver questioned in shock and confusion.

"Felicity trusts you, that much is obvious," Derek began. "She trusts you so much that she is working a job that she swore for almost twenty years she would never do under almost any circumstance. That being said, I'm willing to bet that at least one if not all of you know about her not so secret nighttime activities. And I'm hoping that one of you knows how to contact Starling City's better known vigilante."

"Say we could contact him," Sara began. "Why do you need his help?"

"Because that stuff Felicity took from you is killing her," Isaac answered. "And the only compatible tissue donor is 18 hours into 72 hour lock-up for a murder he could not have committed. The doctor estimates she has about twelve hours before her organs begin to shut down."

"So call the Sheriff, call the DA, don't resort to breaking out a murder suspect," John pointed out.

"We tried that," Derek objected. "I called in every favor, greased every palm I could think of and then some, and we still can't get Deucalion out of jail, not even with an armed escort. And believe me, I know first-hand what Deucalion is capable of when he's off the rails, but the one thing he would never do under any circumstance is hurt Felicity. So please, help us save her. Our family can't bury someone else."

Sara held out her hand, "Give me your phone before I change my mind." Allison quickly handed over one of the satellite phones she had borrowed from her father's inventory.

"Felicity wouldn't have told you about him, and if you think you can bully us into doing your dirty work," Oliver began only for Derek to cut him off.

"She didn't have to. You think I would let six years pass without looking out for her? That I wouldn't do everything in my power to keep her safe, use every resource I could to protect her from the people hunting us? I am not the same naïve teenager that nearly broke your arm eight years ago over a stupid auto stunt, and I don't appreciate being treated like one," Derek snapped. "I am here as a courtesy for the friendship and respect our parents had for one another and the friendship you and Felicity share. I'm hoping you can set aside our past grievances and do the right thing." Derek pulled out a small business card. "If he agrees, I can be reached at this number. If he needs any supplies I'll get them, but let him know that if we don't hear from him by 8pm tonight, we'll do this without him."

* * *

"Do you think they're telling the truth?" Sara asked.

"Yes," Oliver admitted. "I think there's more to it than a simple tissue donation, but I believe them about Felicity being sick. When I went to see her at her brother's loft she was barely moving, and puking up black sludge constantly. The only time she seemed ok was when her uncle showed up, and I have a feeling it was more for appearances sake than anything else."

"Oliver's right," John agreed. "Isaac and his girlfriend practically had to carry her into the room when she was here. Before she collapsed, Allison talked to Isaac in the hall for a few minutes. I think that was when they figured out what exactly was wrong. They both looked like someone had walked over their graves."

"Not to mention the black blood," Sara added. "The only time I've ever seen that is when we were on the freighter, and they were always dead less than ten minutes later."

"Do you think they have a plan?" John asked. "They sounded desperate."

"They have a plan," Oliver told him. "They wouldn't have come here on a Hail Mary alone. The Hale family is too proud to rely on others for everything."

"Hale as in Hale Enterprises?" John asked.

"I didn't put it together until I went to her brother's apartment. And I wasn't certain it was the same family until Derek mentioned nearly breaking my arm," the archer told them.

"Sounds like you two have a history?" Sara guessed.

"You remember that little girl I nearly ran over my freshman year of college, that was his, or I guess their youngest sister, Cora. Derek yanked me out through the driver's side window by the arm almost as soon as the car came to stop. I don't think I ever seen anyone that angry, not even now."

"You didn't drive for six months after. We figured he had put the fear of god in you," Sara replied. "You weren't even drunk or high."

"The stupid thing is I don't even know how she got in front of me. When I pulled into the drive I remember passing her and Thea playing in the front yard. A few seconds later she's fifty feet in front of me, looking like a deer in the headlights."

"So, how do you want to play this?" John asked changing the subject. "Use the voice changer, let them know you'll be there in a couple of hours?"

"Yeah," Oliver nodded. "Might as well get that part over with."

* * *

"What's plan B?" Isaac asked. "In case this doesn't work, or he doesn't show?"

"This is plan B," Derek answered.

"Then what's plan C?" Isaac corrected.

"Plan C is I break Deucalion out myself, plan D: I pay one of the deputies to chop of Deucalion's hands, plan E: I kill Satomi Ito, F: I use our mother's claws to turn her mate, and we use his newly acquired claws for the transplant, and G: our last resort, I torture Peter until he tells me how to bring her back from the dead," Derek explained.

"And now I see why we didn't call Scott," Stiles replied.

"Ok, not to be rude, but why exactly am I here?" Danny asked.

Derek picked up a laptop and a tablet and handed them to the tech savvy teenager. "This is the most powerful computer combination this side of the Mississippi. It has access to resources and computing power you could never even dream of. That being said you are going to hack into the Sheriff's station, create a video loop so we can break in and get Deucalion and then wipe out all surveillance footage they have on the network for the past twenty-four hours. And while you're doing that we are going to get Deucalion to save my sister and destroy any physical copies of the surveillance footage they have. If you do this and we don't get caught, you can name your price."

"And I would do this for you because?" Danny asked.

"Because you're a good person, you were one of Laura's most trusted friends, and Felicity Smoak taught you everything you know," Derek pointed out.

"And Felicity isn't the person doing this because?"

"Felicity is the one who is dying," Derek told him.

Danny instantly paled and ran into the bedroom where most of the hospital equipment was set up, after being gone several seconds he came back in the main room and pulled two twenty dollar bills from his wallet. "Lydia I need three Red Bulls, two large protein shakes and the largest bottle of water you can find."

"On it," the strawberry blonde nodded in understanding before taking the money and heading back towards the elevator.

"Are we waiting on anybody else?" Stiles asked.

"Maybe," Derek admitted while he paced back and forth. "If he's not here in five minutes we go over the plan without him."

"We told him 8," Isaac pointed out. "We should at least wait until it's closer so we know for sure he's not going to show up."

"I can't believe I'm saying this but Derek is right," Stiles said. "If we want this to go as smooth as possible we need to be prepared for the worst, which means we have to assume whoever you three called for back-up, isn't coming." Stiles carefully laid out the hand drawn schematics of the Sheriff's station he had drawn, and the actual schematics for the ventilation system. "Can someone please write the back-up plans on one of the boards?" He carefully held a colored pen over his shoulder for someone to take.

"Stiles," Danny began. "I don't think we're going to need those back-up plans."

"Danny, I like you buddy, but our plans barely ever work out the way we want them to. If we have the plans on the board at least we're all on the same page."

"And what exactly is the back-up plan?" a deep obviously computer generated voice asked.

Stiles sighed heavily in annoyance, not even turning around. "A computer generated portable voice changer, really? God Allison, you couldn't have been a little classier with the disguises? Hundreds of thousands of dollars of the best weaponry money can buy and you brought voice changers that sound like they came out of a cereal box."

"Stiles," Allison said. "That wasn't me."

Stiles simply nodded in understanding, choosing not to turn around and be surprised by the help his friend had called in for back-up. "When this is over I'm buying everyone collars with bells attached to them. Cow bells specifically that way the next time someone decides to go crawling through a window instead of using the door like a normal-" he cut himself off. "Basically, I'm tired of being scared out of my mind. Its fine when it's only occasionally, I'd even encourage it in certain situations-"

"Like the night before the first day of school so you and your best friend can go search the preserve for half of a dead body," Isaac interrupted with a tiny smile. "Those types of situations?"

"Write the plans on the board," Stiles ordered, throwing a marker at Isaac's head. "Unless you want your scarf collection to meet a sudden and ugly demise." Isaac begrudgingly did as he was told, while the pack human made a few more notes to the building layouts. "Sour wolf, you want to make the introductions," Stiles said finally looking up from the plans on the table and turning around to face the guests, "considering you're the one who called this shindig."

The pack members began making silent observations about the two vigilantes who were helping them. The Hood, or the Arrow, if the rumors and papers were to be believed, appeared to be doing the same as them, while the woman in the corset was eyeing the display boards and peering at the schematics on the table.

"Felicity is in the bedroom," Derek said. "Don't touch any equipment and don't wake her up."

The man in green nodded and headed to the room, while his partner stayed behind. "You have a lot of back-up plans," the blonde vigilante noted.

"Is there a question in that statement?" Derek asked.

"You would kill for her?"

"I would die if it meant saving her," Derek answered honestly. "She's my sister."

The vigilante nodded in understanding and the wolves in the room could tell she was pleased with Derek's answer.

"I'm in," Danny said in triumph. "Oh shit."

"Define 'oh shit' Danny," Stiles said, going over to where Danny had set up the computers and looking over his friend's shoulder.

"I don't think Felicity's uncle is very happy. He appears to be having a conversation with- isn't that your other creepy uncle?" The teenager asked.

"How did he even get in there?" Isaac asked.

"It's Peter," Stiles replied like the answer was obvious.

"Do you think Peter knows?" Isaac asked the older beta.

"Deucalion wouldn't give her up," Derek told them. "If Peter knows then he found out from someone else. He could also be phishing."

"I'm pretty sure he's leaving empty handed," Danny said. "Peter looks pissed and Deucalion looks smug."

"I never thought I'd be happy to see Deucalion win," Allison commented.

There was a dinging noise and the elevator doors slowly opened to reveal Lydia holding two grocery bags and Mrs. McCall wearing scrubs.

"Do I want to know why I'm here and not Scott?" Melissa asked the elder beta.

"Scott doesn't have a phlebotomy license," Derek replied. "And we assumed that you didn't want your sixteen year old son to be a live donor for someone he barely knew, especially since we have a more than willing family member who is also a perfect match."

"I approve of your answers, but if Scott asks I didn't know he was a genetic match," Melissa told them. "And no, I don't want to know what you're planning or why you decided to call people who are dressed like superheroes."

"We tried to go the legal route, but your ex-husband is a dick," Stiles added.

"And that Stiles is one of the many reasons he is my ex-husband." She quickly went over to the corner of the room where there was a large lounge chair set up with basic equipment needed to donate blood. "Derek, I'm assuming you're going to be the one donating."

"Yes," He answered, while he rolled up the left sleeve of his Henley.

"I need to advise you that donating more than two units at a time is heavily frowned upon and you would be putting yourself at risk for infection," she explained while she set up the waiting blood bags and began prepping the needle.

"I have a gallon of Sunny D and a package of sugar cookies waiting for me as soon as this is done," he replied with what he hoped was a comforting smile, while he sat down in the recliner.

"You still want to donate three units?" the nurse double checked.

"I'd donate four if I thought I could get away with it," he replied honestly.

Melissa carefully dipped the needle in a diluted wolfs bane solution so the werewolf's skin wouldn't try and heal with the IV in his arm. "I'm also suggesting that you take a dose of Iron after the cookies, and by suggesting I do mean I will force feed them to you if you attempt to refuse."

"Completely understandable," he agreed with a nod.

"This is going to hurt," Melissa told him, carefully tying the band around Derek's arm and swabbing a patch of skin where his veins were.

"Aren't you not supposed to tell him that?" Stiles asked.

"Its fine Stiles," Derek told him. "Why don't you brief the newcomers on the details of the plan?"

"Right," the human nodded. "Are you two waiting on anyone else?"

"John is in the lobby," the blonde woman admitted. "We weren't sure who was invited, your friends weren't very specific."

"They're not our friends," Derek said. "And I really shouldn't be surprised more than one of you is moonlighting."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the woman asked.

"I think what Derek is trying and failing to say is that-" Stiles began only to be interrupted by Isaac.

"Cut the crap Sara." Isaac stated simply.

"Also, your wig is on crooked," Lydia added off handedly from her spot in the corner of the room, where she was filing her nails. The other people in the room were staring at the strawberry blonde skeptically, as if questioning the validity and importance of her statement. "We are breaking out a formerly homicidal now reformed alpha, who likes to commonly refer to himself in the third person as the Demon Wolf. And while I doubt Scott's idiot father could catch us, he has the entire resources of the FBI at his disposal, and I sincerely hope they're not all as incompetent as he is. One of them will notice if one of use is wearing a wig if it is on crooked. And please tell the other one to take off the camo paint before he gags us with the stench. I can smell it from over here. Allison, you have shooting googles, don't you?"

"We're going to need more than just googles," Allison commented. "I'm pretty sure that half of the parts in Robin Hood's bow have been recalled."

"We need more comm. units too," Danny added. "We only have four."

"We only need four," Derek replied.

"Screw that. I am not staying behind," Allison cursed. "I'm the best shot here and you know it."

"It's nothing personal-" Derek began.

"It sounds pretty fucking personal Derek," Allison shot back.

"Language children," Mrs. McCall scolded, leveling her gaze on Allison and Derek. "Allison, why don't you let Derek explain, and then you can yell at him when he's done donating blood if you still feel the need."

"You are the only person who can break out Deucalion if we get caught," Derek told the huntress. "And don't act like you don't know it. If Isaac and I get arrested it's up to you to break him out and get him here so Deaton can perform the transplant. If you want to help, set up across the street, knock out the deputies while Isaac and I draw them outside."

Allison shook her head back and forth and let out a slow breath. "I'll get the rifle. Stiles, is there any one at the station that tranq darts will not work on?"

"Parrish," Stiles answered immediately. "However a taser to the neck should buy you ten minutes."

"Good to know," Allison sighed. "So when is tall dark and broody going to come out of the room? Deaton said time was of the essence."

"We might as well invite John up too," Isaac added. "He seems nice. Felicity trusts him. He didn't automatically threaten me."

"I'll get him," Lydia volunteered, getting up from the chair. "Should I grab anything else on my way back up?"

"The recall notices," Allison answered. "I need to know which parts to replace, I'll text my dad, have him leave them outside the door. I have all of the spare parts I need here."

"Be back in five," Lydia nodded, on her way back towards the elevator.

"Spare parts for what?" the hooded vigilante asked, exiting the main bedroom.

"You're equipment is antiquated and defective," Allison replied. "I won't go out in the field with equipment that can't be relied on, even if it's not mine."

"My gear is fine." He told them.

"Then you won't mind if I look it over," the huntress smirked.

"She's got a point," Sara told him. "I'd make you upgrade too."

"My gear is fine," the hooded man snapped with a glare at his partner.

"Allison, if he wants to be an idiot, let him," Stiles said. "Then when everyone gets back you both can fight it out, and after you knocked him out, you can fix it then."

"Alright Derek, you're done, just keep the band on for a few more hours," Mrs. McCall said, before removing the IV. She carefully pulled out a lighter and handed it to the older man, along with the wolf's bane solution she had used. "I'll hang these units in the refrigerator, and then I'm going to watch you eat, drink, and take your vitamins."

"Yes, Ma'am," Derek replied. He grabbed a cotton swab and dipped it in the wolf's bane. He then lit the cotton swab on fire and blew it out before it completely burned, then rubbed the ash onto his arm where the needle was.

Isaac went over to the bar and grabbed the large gallon of orange juice and the bag of cookies, and then handed them over to the older wolf. "How do you feel?"

"Like more than half of my blood was drained from my body," he replied.

"I told you not to donate three units." Melissa pointed out.

"I wasn't complaining, Mrs. McCall, simply stating a fact." He slowly stood up and walked over to the table where Stiles was. "Alright, Stiles, what's the plan?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! New chapter. Quick question, do you guys prefer longer chapters with fewer updates or shorter chapters with more frequent updates? I'm trying to put a poll up on my profile page, if for some reason I can't load the poll just put it in the comment section. And I still need a beta, so if you know of anyone please let me know.


	5. Agent McCall is a Jackass (aka Where There is an Epic Team Up and Oliver is Completely Out of His Depth)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I said that I was going to be posting more often, and look at me, I am. So here's the deal, every month there will be a new chapter ranging from 1000 - 5000 words posted within the first ten days. If I don't there will be a double chapter posted the next month. SO, it's been two months, therefore double chapter! Leave reviews even if it's just a simple YAY! And I can't believe I forgot to post it on both sites. God, I'm awful sometimes. Sorry AO3! readers.
> 
> OH, almost forgot, in the first scene Italics are flash back, normal is real time. The second time Italics appear is when Isaac is eavesdropping.

"I still don't see why I'm the one who had to crawl through the vents," Stiles complained in a harsh whisper as he attempted to quietly shuffle along the very narrow corridor on his elbows and knees. "This always seemed so much cooler in the movies."

"You're supposed to be quiet so they don't hear you while you infiltrate the building!" Danny hissed from the other end of the comm.

"No Watchtower, I'm not going to be quiet because these vents haven't been cleaned since the early 90s and now you have me crawling through them like some type of monkey-spider thing."

"You mean a spider monkey?" the resident tech asked.

"That too," Stiles whispered. "If I get bitten by a brown recluse and have to go to the hospital I'm totally blaming you." The lanky teen quickly came across an intersection and stopped moving, hoping to use his hearing to be able to tell which tunnel led to the holding cells and which led to the front, where the deputies and agents were. "Uh, dude? A little help would be nice."

" _This is a layout of the entire station," Stiles said, pointing to the hand drawn map._

" _Who drew it a nine-year-old?" John Diggle asked._

" _I did thank you very much!" Stiles immediately snapped. "My scale models got confiscated after we borrowed the prisoner transport van last year, Agent McJackass took all three sets of my blue prints when he had to search my house, and Matt Daehler stole my backups in order to murder most of the deputies, so this lovely piece of art, which happens to have exact measurements down to a quarter of an inch, is all we've got right now."_

" _Stiles focus." Derek ordered._

" _Shut up Sour wolf," Stiles grumbled._

"Left is the holding cells," Danny told him. "Sixty feet and three openings down and you should be above Deucalion's cell."

"Just make sure the betas and the basket cases are ready for their parts," Stiles grumbled.

"The basket cases can hear you," the Arrow growled.

"Aww is somebody still upset about not being in charge?"

" _After we get the keys to Deucalion, Derek and Isaac are going to cause a distraction outside the two entrances," Stiles explained._

" _And I'm going to be stooped across the street here, picking off the deputies one by one," Alison said, pointing to a nearby rooftop on the map. "It gives me a good vantage point to cover both exits, and gets the deputies out of line of sight from the windows."_

" _Then when all of the deputies have been drawn outside, Danny is going to cut the power, putting the station into lockdown and locking everyone outside."_

" _So how are we going to get in and out?" Sara asked._

Stiles finally reached his destination, right above Deucalion's sitting form perched on the edge of the cot in the holding cell. "Mr. Demon Wolf. Alpha of alphas. I have a hand cuff key for you. Come here puppy," Stiles cooed in a baby voice. "Who's a good boy?"

"Spark do not antagonize the angry alpha," Derek told him over the comm. "We need his help, making him angry will only get everyone in trouble."

"You're taking all of the fun out of this," Stiles grumbled. "Deucalion, look up. I'm in the vents. Up here you stupid mutt!" the teenager hissed.

"Mr. Stillinski if you continue to antagonize me I will pull you out of the air duct and drop your unconscious form in front of Agent McCall so he can deal with whatever shenanigans you have no doubt involved yourself in."

"But don't you want to be the good guy for once? Scott says he gets a kick out of it. There must be a single good bone in your body. There are 206 bones in the body, the odds say that at least one of them have to have a trace of good in it."

"Mr. Stillinski, I cannot believe I am even asking this, but how did you even get in here?" the alpha wondered.

_"The roof," Stiles answered with a smirk._

_"So we're blowing a hole in the roof with an incendiary," the Arrow assumed._

_"No," Stiles sighed. "After creepy homicidal stalker stole my plans and held everyone hostage in the station last year it became inherently obvious that we needed a way in and out that no one knew about."_

_"So you created your own personal exit," Sara smirked._

_"It's not on any of the plans," Stiles continued. "And with state of the art biometric locks courtesy of Hale Enterprises, we programmed the entire group's finger prints. Lydia is going on the roof with you two and when Danny cuts the power, she is going to let you in, and make sure all three of you get out."_

" _But if you cut the power shouldn't the locks be useless?" John questioned._

" _Independent power source," Isaac answered automatically._

" _A self-sustaining independent power source," Lydia corrected with a satisfied grin. Unfortunately, the banshee's expression wasn't very subtle and the new comers looked at her somewhat questioningly. "I was bored, ok? What you've never seen an idle genius before?"_

"I thought Ms. Blake, or whoever she was fixed your eyes?" Stiles questioned, when the alpha finally sent a glowing red eyed glare at him over the brim of his rose tinted glasses through the grid covering the vent.

"Spark just drop the keys," Derek groaned.

"But he's still blind," Stiles argued. "How do I know he can catch the keys if I drop them?"

"Mr. Stillinski I am blind, not incompetent," Deucalion replied. The alpha then held up his cuffed hands and pulled the cuffs apart as if the chains were made of paper and not metal.

"I hate all of you," Stiles grumbled, dropping the keys through one of the gaps in the grate only for Deucalion to skillfully snatch them out of the air and take off the now useless cuffs.

"Will you be following the ventilation corridors back outside, or would you like me to create an exit so you can walk out with the rest of us?" the alpha asked.

"I'm crawling, I'm crawling," Stiles replied with a huff as he began to noisily shuffle backwards. "I don't want those things anywhere near me, thank you very much."

" _So what exactly is this distraction that you have planned?" Sara asked. "So the two of us don't get distracted by it."_

" _It's a bear," Isaac admitted sheepishly._

" _A bear?" the Arrow questioned._

" _A trained, domesticated North American grizzly bear," Allison added._

" _We were going to set it loose in the parking lot," Derek lied._

" _And how are you going to get the bear out of the parking lot?" Sara questioned._

" _Fido listens to Derek," Stiles answered simply. "Derek and Isaac lead Fido into the lot, and then when the deputies have been knocked out and Deucalion is making a speedy getaway with the rest of us, Derek and Isaac corral Fido back home."_

" _It's a bear." John pointed out._

" _Are you insinuating that Fido isn't loyal?" Stiles asked. "Because let me tell you for a very grumpy and surly creature, Fido is the most loyal – bear – I know." Stiles wasn't sure if the three humans were going to question his pause or not, but he wasn't going to bring it up if they weren't._

"Spark, how close are you to the exit?" Lydia asked in a hushed but bored tone.

"I don't know Scream, I don't have my own personal back-up camera installed in my tailbone," Stiles snapped.

"Well you're making a lot of noise for someone who isn't moving very fast," the strawberry blonde pointed out.

"How did you even get one of the comm. units?" Stiles wondered.

"If I can hear you without a comm. unit in my ear, you're too loud."

" _Derek, Alison, and Robin Hood are going to have the comm. units while Danny is playing Big Brother," Stiles continued. "And Robin Hood is going to have to lose the camo paint for something a little more practical."_

_Allison carefully placed a pair of odd colored shooting googles on the table. "If you have read "The Hunger Games" raise your hand."_

_Most of the people in the room raised their hands, the only one who didn't was the Arrow._

" _These glasses are worth more than a Ferrari," Allison said. "Night vision, automatic distance and trajectory settings, made out of two-way glass so you can see through, but everyone else can't, specifically designed to not impede the wearer's field of vision or peripheries, built in cameras to transmit video and audio, and the casing is made out of a mesh that can conform perfectly to the wearer's facial features. Do not damage or lose these."_

" _Am I the only person who wants to know how Allison got the glasses from "The Hunger Games" books?" Danny asked._

"Blue, cue distraction," Danny ordered. "One of the deputies can hear Spark."

"Fucking Parrish," Stiles grumbled.

The group didn't have to wait more than a few seconds in order to hear a bone chilling roar emanating from the parking lot, followed closely by a somewhat different one, and the definite crunch of sheet metal being torn apart.

"And now Fido is ripping the doors off of cars," Lydia noted aloud. "I didn't think they'd go that far."

Sara looked like she was going to move from her position until Lydia laid a hand on her arm, indicating the blonde shouldn't move.

"Trust me you do not want to witness the massive property destruction, not to mention the deputies might be able to see you if you stand up," Lydia commented.

Sara nodded in agreement, understanding that the girl probably had a point.

"Ask Watchtower how many deputies are in the station." Lydia told the Arrow.

" _These on the other hand," Allison continued, pulling a contact lenses case out of her back pocket and setting them in front of Sara. "Are worth roughly half a million dollars. Early prototypes, they can't be used for more than an hour at a time. Put them in when you get to the roof, take them out as soon as you get in the SUV. They'll be obsolete in a matter of weeks, but I still need them back."_

_Sara nodded in understanding and carefully slipped them in her pocket._

" _What's the exit strategy?" the Arrow asked._

" _I will be driving the getaway vehicle," Stiles answered. "I should be out of the vents by the time Danny cuts the power, and it'll give me enough time to climb back down the fire escape and get to the parking lot."_

" _I think he meant to ask how we were getting out of the building," Sara replied._

" _Lydia opens the hatch, and all four of you climb down the fire escape, where I will be waiting with the van, and we speed off back here so we can prep Deucalion for the transplant."_

"One… two… three," Lydia began counting Allison's shots.

Three more shots rang out in a quick succession and Sara picked up where the banshee had left off, "four… five… six..."

"Those weren't her," Lydia said with a slight shake of her head. There were a few more snarling like noises. "Four," Lydia counted, followed by a noise that sounded similar to a whimpering dog, but it was almost immediately drowned out by another loud roar a few more faint shots. "Now, she's just wasting ammo," Lydia sighed. "One of the deputies must have clipped Delta."

"Watchtower said there are still eight more inside," the Arrow answered.

"Something's wrong," Lydia realized, shaking her head back and forth. "Artemis should have knocked him out by now. Who's in the parking lot?"

"Watchtower, who is Artemis shooting at?" the Arrow asked.

"He's not going down!" Allison hissed loudly over the comm.

"Parrish," Lydia realized. "Tell Artemis to switch to her primary weapon with Taser tips and aim for the neck. One shot will buy us ten minutes." Even with the goggles, Lydia could tell when she was being glared at. "Do I have to repeat myself?"

" _What's the back-up plan?" John asked._

" _Derek goes on a killing spree," Stiles answered on autopilot, not even looking up from the schematics._

_Two of the new comers waited for a second to see if the teenager was joking, but when it became obvious he wasn't their gazes shifted to Derek._

" _If we do this and anything goes sideways, the only other viable option we have is to kill the other compatible donor in town," Derek answered. "Plan A also known as the legal plan failed, if plan B fails then C and D are off the table, plan E kill Satomi Ito, plan F Kidnap Felicity's ex, make him to donate, plan G kidnap Peter, make him donate. If you have a problem with any of those options, there's the door."_

"Parrish is down," Allison reported. "Switching back to secondary weapon." Lydia let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding, and began counting the shots. After a few more minutes and the last shot rang out Allison reported back, "Six minutes left."

"Copy that," Danny said. "Blue, what's the status on the back-up generator?"

"One second," Derek replied, before there was the sound of metal being mangled. "Generator is down."

"Cutting power now," Danny said. "Scream, you're clear. Arrow and Canary can begin extraction."

Lydia quickly pushed her palm to the hand pad and the lock went green, effortlessly opening the hatch. Sara went down first, choosing to simply drop, while the Arrow followed behind her choosing to use the ladder.

Isaac quickly scaled the wall and ran across the roof to where the opening to the vents were to fish out Stiles and helped the gangly teen crawl out of the cramped space and scramble back down the fire escape.

" _Is there going to be anyone inside of the building besides Deucalion?" Sara asked. "Anyone else we need to worry about?"_

" _There's a good chance that Deputy Parrish will still be in the building," Stiles answered with a sigh. "He's the newest, fresh out of the academy, and he did a few tours for the Army as a ranger. Since he's the lowest on the totem pole, he will most likely be the last person left standing, and if that happens he will not be allowed to leave the station unattended while there are prisoners, even in a state of emergency. He's a tough bastard and like I told Allison the only way to take him down is a Taser to the neck, but even then he's back up again in ten minutes."_

" _What is he?" Allison asked._

" _Hell if I know," Stiles replied. "I only know the Taser bit because of Cora, and Parrish's bad luck."_

" _Do I even want to know?" Derek mumbled._

" _Cora had a Taser, I had a trip wire, we were aiming for Agent McJackass, and we tripped Deputy Parrish instead," Stiles explained._

" _Why on earth were you trying to knock out my Ex-Husband?" Melissa asked. "Never mind, forget I asked. And Derek, eat the rest of those cookies before I come over there and have to feed you like a baby."_

"Is it just me, or do Felicity's family members and their friends give off a weird vibe?" the Arrow asked.

"Please tell me you had the common sense to mute your comm. before you asked that question?" Sara replied.

He winced and Sara could make out what she assumed was a loud squeaking noise that sounded like interference from a microphone, before he pulled the comm. out of his ear and handed it to her. "Watchtower said I don't get the comm. anymore."

"How did you survive the last year?" Sara wondered, placing the device in her ear.

"Dumb luck and a lot of kissing Smoak's ass, obviously," Danny replied. "In fact I would put money on him having to kiss everyone's ass at least five times in the past year."

Sara chuckled lightly as the two vigilantes split up and began to survey the building. "Watchtower, did we ever figure out who drew the short straw?"

"Artemis, who's missing from the roll call?" Danny asked.

"Well, It's not Parrish," Allison sighed. "Three guesses who, only the first two don't count."

"Copy that Artemis," Danny said, switching back to the current surveillance feed he had tapped into. "Canary, Agent McCall is waiting around the corner to your left with a hand gun."

"We're clear Watchtower," Sara replied. She pulled a sonic device off of her belt and quickly set the timer before sliding it a few feet in front of her and covering her ears.

" _We should use code names on the comms." Lydia suggested._

" _Be bur kot min ha why vovie," Derek mumbled with what appeared to be an entire package of cookies in his mouth._

" _Real mature Derek," Lydia sighed._

" _What did he say?" Sara asked._

" _He said we aren't in a spy movie," Isaac replied._

" _Lydia has a point," Allison agreed. "Even if we do encrypt the frequency, which I doubt we'll have time for, there is still a chance with all of the FBI equipment in the station that they'll be able to piggy back onto our comm. signal and hear everything we say to each other."_

" _We could just keep communication to a minimum," John suggested._

_Stiles burst into laughter and started to stifle it when he realized no one was laughing with him. "Oh, you were serious."_

" _As much as I don't like to admit it, Stiles has a point," Derek replied, after he swallowed a majority of the sugary glob of food that was in his mouth._

" _Excellent," Lydia smirked, walking over to the whiteboard and picking up a dry erase marker._

Sara saw Agent McCall drop in surprise and move to cover his ears and was quick to knock him out with a few well-placed kicks, before picking up his side arm and turning off her distraction. "McCall is down."

"Copy that Canary," Danny said. "It looks like the Arrow is in the Sheriff's office uploading the program I gave him. Holding cells are to the right."

"What about the keys?"

"I don't think you're going to need them," Danny answered, before there was a particularly loud series of clangs followed by a well-dressed man in sunglasses running his left hand along the wall and blindly reaching out with his other.

"Our target is blind?" She unknowingly questioned out loud.

"And currently somewhat unstable on his feet due to the sonic device," Danny replied. "Artemis, what's the time?"

"Three minutes Watchtower," Allison answered.

"Spark, what's the status of the exit plan?"

"Waiting and ready at the rendezvous point," Stiles answered.

_Derek quickly picked up the gallon of Sunny D from the table and proceeded to take long gulps only pausing briefly for air in between. When half of the gallon was gone, Mrs. McCall quickly went over and pricked one of his finger tips to do a blood test. "Alright, finish the rest slowly and after twenty minutes you should be ready to go."_

" _If anyone has a problem with their codename they're going to have to live with it," Lydia said, putting the cap back on the marker and smiling proudly at her work._

" _Artemis?" Allison questioned._

" _Goddess of the hunt," Lydia replied. "Do you not approve?"_

" _I'm just surprised you didn't go with Diana," Allison admitted._

" _The Greeks were smarter, the Romans just copied them and were more battle ready," Lydia defended. "Their empire would've lasted longer if they hadn't gotten arrogant."_

" _I feel objectified," Derek replied after reading his code name._

" _It's the color of your eyes," Lydia argued. "Explain to me how using the color of your eyes as a codename is being objectified. I could've called you broody wolf man, dude who hangs out with teenagers, person who can't date someone who doesn't want to kill us all, or even man with washboard abs."_

Sara quickly made her way over to where Deucalion was walking and carefully tapped him on the arm to get his attention. "I'm a friend of your niece's, we're going to get you out of here, ok?"

"My niece?" he questioned. "How is she?"

"She's fine," Sara answered. "For now anyways. We need to get you out of here. Watchtower, where are we on the exit plan?"

"Can you get him to the preferred exit, or do we need to go with plan B?" Danny asked.

"Plan B seems like the better option," Sara answered. "I'm not sure we'll make it otherwise."

"Rerouting transportation now," Danny said. "Spark, change to the second rendezvous point."

"Copy that," Stiles replied. "Eta twenty seconds."

"Scream, Artemis, how fast can you get to the second rendezvous?"

"Delta is in the van already; I'm thirty seconds out; Scream, where are you?" Allison asked.

"Out of sight of the camera, twenty feet from the second rendezvous point," Lydia answered. "Where's Blue?"

"Corralling Fido," Derek answered. "Alright cage secure, I'm heading to the second getaway vehicle now. We can meet back at the site once we're certain we haven't been followed."

"Copy that Blue," Danny said. "Be sure to cut the feed."

"Got it. Blue out," Derek said going off line.

" _We should plan a secondary exit strategy," John suggested. "A way out that won't take as long in case this takes a wrong turn."_

" _It shouldn't take too long to force our way out if something goes wrong," Isaac said._

" _Or if we have Arrow and Sara wear gloves, we could go right out the front door," Stiles suggested. "Deucalion's prints will already be on the door, so there's no real point in making him wear gloves."_

" _You told them your name," the Arrow hissed._

" _She didn't tell us anything," Allison replied. "We put two and two together and got four, like any person over the age of three. Now are you going to wear the gloves or whine like a baby?"_

_Sara snorted at the teenager's remark and the Arrow simply chose to glare at both of them in contempt._

" _I hate working with people who have the mindset of teenagers," Lydia sighed._

" _We are teenagers," Isaac argued._

" _I was talking about brooding brute 1 and 2," Lydia replied, motioning to the Arrow and Derek. "At least John and Sara are helpful. You two are so busy having a pissing contest with each other it's amazing we've managed to get anything done."_

_Allison pulled out one of her daggers and started spinning it absentmindedly while Isaac just stared at it in a trance like state._

" _Ok, so secondary exit is the front door," Stiles agreed, wanting to get back on topic. "Which means after one of you gets him out of the cell, what is the other one going to be doing."_

" _They will be plugging this into the sheriff's computer," Danny said holding up a small flash drive. "It's a Trojan/worm combo Felicity helped me with a couple of years ago. Designed to erase cyber footprints after creating a backdoor into the system, and with the new patch I loaded onto it a few minutes ago, it will delete all of the surveillance footage from the last two hours, and give me a door into the server to wipe the footage of everything after you leave. Just make sure you bring this back after it's uploaded onto the desktop."_

" _Isn't that why you got arrested two years ago?" Stiles questioned. "For hacking some guy's computer and putting his private browsing history onto the school website."_

" _Those allegations were never proven," Danny replied. "And my ex is a douche, something we all know since he stood me up at the winter formal last year and the year before."_

" _Ok," Lydia said a little too loudly. "Moving on from Danny's love life. Are we all clear about the plan? We stick to this, always communicate with code names, and do not kill anyone." The banshee glared daggers at everyone until they acknowledged compliance either verbally or nodded vigorously. "Good."_

"Arrow! Hurry Up!"

"Alright!" the Arrow replied, moving quickly out of the office. "The program uploaded onto both computers."

Both vigilantes got to the front door at the same time, and were quickly greeted by their van screeching to halt in front of them two seconds later. "Get in!" Stiles yelled from the driver's seat, when Isaac threw open the side door. Sara helped in Deucalion, while Lydia and several seconds later Allison got in through the back door and she and the Arrow were the last in. What would have taken lesser individuals a couple of minutes took the group less than fifteen seconds, and Stiles began speeding away with only the amount of finesse and ease that suggested lots of practice and experience.

"Everybody turn your earpieces off," Stiles ordered. "The last thing we need is a way for them to track us." The teenager quickly pulled his out of his ear and switched it off, tossing Isaac his phone to turn that off too.

"Watchtower, did you get that?" Allison asked.

"Copy that Artemis," Danny replied. "We'll see you at the meet up point in ten."

"Team out," Allison sighed. She quickly pulled her own ear piece out and motioned for Sara to hand over hers. The blonde complied and even handed over the phone she had borrowed with it.

"I would ask what prompted this strange cooperative mission, but I'm not sure any of you would actually tell me," Deucalion noted.

"You're right," Lydia agreed. "We wouldn't."

"Then can I ask why you felt the need to spring me from my 72 hour hold?" the alpha asked. "I'm assuming it has something to do with Ms. Smoak, but seeing as how she's not here I'm wondering what happened."

"They didn't tell you?" Isaac questioned.

"Tell me what? How Ms. Lance happened to lie when she said Ms. Smoak was fine? Or how apparently the FBI doesn't listen to the chain of command anymore?"

"Why don't we let Derek tell you when he drives you back to the hotel," Stiles suggested.

"Mr. Stillinski," Deucalion growled.

"Hey, do not threaten the getaway driver," Stiles said. "Haven't you ever seen a heist movie, when you threaten the getaway driver; the getaway car crashes, and everyone gets arrested. And I for one don't want to see what happens if another member of Derek's family kicks the bucket. That guy is broody enough already, do you have any idea what it's going to be like when we have to attend more burials? He'll never speak another word again for as long as he lives, and right now we've barely gotten him out of monosyllabic responses and even that is worse than pulling teeth."

"So why does the FBI think you killed your brother?" Isaac asked.

"Because how else could a blind man find a dead body that's been missing for twenty-five years," the alpha replied. "And my alibi died."

"Who was your alibi?" Isaac questioned.

"Talia."

"Oh," Isaac replied. "Is there a story there?"

"Four family size bags of cheese Doritos, one gallon of vanilla ice cream, one shattered hand and dislocated elbow, and six hours in the delivery ward because of Braxton hicks contractions," he explained. "Never tell your hyperventilating sister-in-law everything will be fine when she thinks she's going into labor."

"Sounds painful," Lydia commented. "It makes me happy I'm an only child. I wouldn't want to have to help my mother go through that. God knows my father wouldn't be the one to hold her hand."

* * *

Felicity was pale and barely breathing as she lay in a medicinal coma in the master bedroom of the hotel suite her family had rented out. Despite the fact she was covered in several layers of blankets she was cold and clammy to the touch. The only thing that marked whatever was wrong with her as being supernatural in origin were the black veins that marked the poisons constant spread through her body, what had started out as barely visible lines in her hands and feet had moved all the way up her shoulders and her hamstrings. It was obvious to the three males in the room that she was dying.

"She needs a-" Deaton began to tell the other alpha only to be cut off.

"I'm aware of what she needs." Deucalion interrupted. "How soon can you begin the procedure?"

"Ten minutes," Deaton answered. "There are a few things that still need to be readied."

"Is she still able to receive memories?" Deucalion asked.

"The poison isn't affecting her cognitive abilities, even if she were beyond saving, she would still be able to send and receive memories up until the moment her brain ceased functioning," Deaton answered. "I'll begin preparing for the procedure." The emissary quickly made his way out of the room and shut the door behind him.

"What are you thinking?" Derek asked.

"After we do this procedure my claws will be useless. When I pass down my power Felicity won't be able to access my memories if she needs them. If I do the memory transfer now and finish the rest of the ceremony before the funeral, she won't be at a disadvantage when the other packs get here or in the future," the demon wolf explained.

"I'm fairly certain the last thing my sister is going to want is the images of you slaughtering the last vestiges of her people and ruining her memories of you," Derek replied.

"And what about the memories of Martin and Talia?" he questioned. "You can't possibly believe she wouldn't want those."

"Of course she will, but unfortunately she needs people she trusts supporting her and fighting by her side than she does for a few mere glimpses of the people she already lost," Derek argued. "All of our lives you and Mom and even Peter have been preparing us for some big fight, and for the first time ever I'm beginning to think that maybe you guys weren't simply being paranoid. And if I'm right, if everything the pack elders have been shoving down the throats of young betas for thousands of years isn't a lie then we need every single able bodied wolf there is."

"Felicity isn't just another able bodied wolf-" Deucalion began.

"You're right," Derek cut him off. "She's a general, better yet a royal, and not just any royal, a fated royal. A fated royal is second only to a true alpha in power, everyone knows that, no matter how many wolves or other alphas one of us kills the strongest of us are the ones who refuse to take lives. Then the fortunate royals, and then the fixed royals that's how it's been for more than three thousand years, and that's how it will be for the next. And whether any of us like it or not Felicity is stronger with you at her back. You're her uncle and her mentor and she is always going to need you, but if you give her access to your memories, to everything you've done I don't know if she can forgive you."

He seemed to think of it for a few moments, Derek could see the wheels turning in his head, but what the outcome was he wasn't sure.

"Family are the people who love and accept you no matter what you do," Deucalion said as he took a few steps towards his comatose niece. "And while I appreciate your desire to protect your sister, the first rule about earning trust is to make sure you start with complete honesty." He carefully placed the claw of his dominant forefinger at the back of her skull. "She is the only family I have left; I will always protect her, even if she doesn't want me to."

Derek nodded in understanding and then showed his neck in a sign of submission, despite knowing the alpha couldn't see his acknowledgement. "Who told you that thing about family?"

"Surprisingly, that bit of wisdom came from your father, Mr. Hale. It's one of the reasons I stood by your mother when she voiced her intent to renew their previous engagement," the elder wolf admitted.

"I'll make sure you're not disturbed during the procedure," Derek told him.

"Actually," Deucalion said. "I think it would be better if you, Ms. Argent, Ms. Martin, and Mr. Lahey were present as well. I believe Ms. Smoak would appreciate the moral support."

* * *

"I don't like this," Isaac said as he paced back and forth across the room for what seemed like the thousandth time; it was actually the 312th Lydia had been keeping track so that she knew when to redirect him so he didn't wear a hole into the carpet. "Shouldn't we be in there with her?"

"Isaac, honey, drink your tea," Mrs. McCall told him, while she handed him the hot beverage.

The teenager pursed his lips and simply stared at the hot drink in his hands not quite sure how to react. "What do I do?" He looked at Melissa like a scared toddler might after being told their parent was in a serious accident, with unshed tears in his eyes and a thousand questions on his mind.

"All you can do right now is be here for Felicity, it's all any of us can do right now," the nurse told him gently.

"I feel like I should be doing something," he replied, looking around the large suite. Danny and Stiles had gone home as soon as it was safe, Stiles needed to explain to his dad what had happened so they could formulate some sort of alibi, Danny said if Felicity found out he had pulled an all-nighter she would hack his system and steal some of his coding projects, there was some sort of story there but Isaac had gotten lost in a haze of worry once Danny had started getting into the technical terms of programming projects the two had been collaborating on. Allison and Lydia were camped out at the table next to the kitchen area, Allison was sharpening her weapons, a nervous trait Isaac had noticed when things were too quiet with the pack, and Lydia looked engrossed in what looked like calculus work, but he couldn't be certain. The Arrow, who was apparently Felicity's friend Oliver that Derek had some kind of bad history with, had left shortly after they had deposited Felicity into Deaton's care, citing that he needed to get back to Starling City, only to reenter the suite in his civilian clothing like he had no idea what had just happened, Isaac was wondering how many of the humans knew or could see through the man's disguise, and had chosen not to say anything until he was certain he could get Oliver alone. Then there were Sara and John, both of whom we fairly quiet and stoic in their demeanors as the time passed. Both barely moved their chosen spots, except only when they needed something, but Sara kept glancing somewhat longingly at Allison's weapons like she really wanted to do something to keep her mind off of what was happening in the other room.

"When was the last time you slept?" Melissa asked him.

"Friday," He answered while looking back down at his drink.

"Drink your tea and go take a nap in the spare room," She told him in her no nonsense Mom voice. "You can't help anyone if you're too exhausted to move. We'll wake you when we know something."

"I'm not tired," He attempted to argue.

"Nightmares getting bad again?" She asked knowingly.

 _They never got better to begin with_ , is what he wanted to say, but what came out was decidedly different, "I don't remember." He took a small sip of his drink to see if it had cooled off enough and nodded in appreciation. "I'm just going to sit."

"Ok," Melissa replied in acceptance. "Just remember to get some sleep. Just because school is out for the week doesn't mean you can go out whenever you want. You need rest."

"I know."

"I mean it kiddo," she lightly scolded. "If you need anything else, give me a call, ok."

"I will," he told her.

"Even if it's just to talk," she added. "You've got a home here as long as you want it." She headed back over to the counter to grab her bag just in time for Deaton to exit the main bedroom.

Everyone immediately looked up from what they're doing, breaking the illusion they weren't as preoccupied in their tasks as the others thought.

"How is she?" Oliver was the first person to get a coherent question out, as most of the rooms occupants crowded around the doctor.

"Deucalion asked for a minute to sit with her before I begin the procedure," Deaton replied. The emissary turned to Melissa, "Is it possible you could stay a few extra minutes and help me set up? I'm not as familiar to some of the newer equipment as I would like to be."

Melissa nodded and set her bag back down before heading into the spare room to move and turn on the machines.

"What exactly is wrong with Felicity?" Sara asked.

"And why aren't we doing this in a hospital?" John added.

"Felicity's kidneys are failing. The plant she ingested was able to pass through her digestive system relatively harmlessly, the problem is since it took so long for her body to purge what was left in her stomach some of the substance managed to get into her blood stream, and her kidney's tried to filter it out," Deaton explained.

"So she needs a kidney transplant?" Oliver assumed.

"Yes and no," Deaton answered. "The damage to her kidneys can be repaired with proper surgery and antibiotics, but unfortunately her thyroid condition severely limits our options, another reason why the procedure couldn't be performed at the local hospital. Her only viable option is to run Felicity's blood through another's system and have their system filter it out and then send the clean blood back to her, which is why we needed the extra units from Derek. We know Deucalion's system can handle the strain, and since he has the same thyroid condition it makes him a compatible donor in case one of her kidneys does permanently fail."

"So you're going to use him as a type of blood filter, while you attempt to repair the damage to her kidneys, and if that doesn't work she'll get a transplant," Sara assumed.

"Essentially yes," Deaton lied. "As for why we can't do this at the hospital, it's a matter of them not permitting the procedure based on its experimental status."

"Wait, so you've never done this before?" Oliver questioned.

"That's not what I said," Deaton told him. "I have done this procedure before, many times, and it has been successful a majority of the time but the procedure isn't commonly practiced enough for it to have passed the experimental stage."

"When you say a majority of the time," John began.

"Seventy percent success rate," Deaton interrupted. "Normally we would do this procedure at my clinic but due to size and certain other restrictions we had the equipment moved here. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to finish setting up so I can get started." He quickly went into the other bedroom to help with the equipment.

Isaac knew the emissary was lying for the older humans' benefit but the knowledge did nothing to quell the nerves in his stomach.

"You ok?" Allison asked.

"I don't like it," he told her simply. "I feel like we're missing something important."

"I know what you mean," she agreed. "We just have to trust Derek."

Isaac raised an eyebrow in skepticism at his girlfriend's remark. "Since when are you and Derek all chummy?"

"It was wrong of me to blame Derek for what happened to my mom," she replied. "I think a part of me has always known it, but when Scott and Stiles and I were at the clinic I realized that Derek and I weren't as different as everyone thought. We've both buried too many family members and we both are willing to do everything we can to protect the people we care about. We're on the same side and we care about the same things, which means we have to learn to trust each other if we want to succeed."

"You are really awesome sometimes," he told her with a tentative smile.

"Only sometimes?" she questioned with a smirk.

"All the time," he amended.

"Hey," Lydia hissed from her spot at the table before throwing a pencil at them. "Stop looking at each other like you want to make out and be useful. The adults are being sneaky." The banshee gestured over to the three adults who were huddled close together and talking about something, while Sara and John looked mad at Oliver.

" _So?" Oliver asked._

" _So what?" Sara asked._

" _You went to medical school, does what that doctor guy want to do check out?" Oliver questioned._

" _Barely a year and a half of premed does not a doctor make," Sara hissed._

" _I think what Oliver meant to say, is have you ever heard of anything like it," John added._

" _Yes, it sounds familiar, and if I'm right you owe Felicity at least two extra weeks of vacation time and seriously large crate of wine," Sara told them._

" _So it's really bad," Oliver assumed._

" _It means that shit you gave her was radioactive!" she hissed._

" _You're lucky her brothers didn't decide to beat you black and blue," John replied._

" _Ok, I don't know who the younger kid is, but I would definitely remember if he was related to Derek and Felicity,_ " _Oliver argued._

" _Isaac is their adopted brother," John replied. "I remember when Felicity was freaking out over the adoption paperwork a couple of months back."_

" _How did I not know about this?" Oliver questioned._

" _Because Felicity isn't as vocal as you and Sara are about your sibling woes," John guessed._

" _Ok, so what do we do?" Oliver asked._

" _We don't do anything," Sara told him. "This is a medical problem, which means we need to let medical professionals deal with it, and they are."_

" _I can't just sit here," Oliver said._

" _Then go buy apology flowers or some shit, because god knows whatever you did earlier did not go over well with her family," she snapped._

"They look mad," Allison observed.

"Sara is mad at Oliver because she thinks whatever he gave Felicity was radioactive," Isaac replied.

"Makes sense," Lydia nodded. "Deaton basically described what would happen if someone sensitive to radioactivity were introduced to a normally rich environment."

"Like where, Chernobyl?" Allison asked.

"Chernobyl would be a much more extreme and volatile reaction, Felicity's symptoms are more typical for certain parts of Japan," Lydia answered.

"Ok," Allison said. "Isaac, give me a hand," she added before moving two of the dining chairs and then they replaced them with the empty loveseat at the table. The two teenagers then sat on the couch and curled into each other while Lydia switched seats so that she could rest her feet on the end.

"Mind if I sit?" Sara asked, gesturing to a chair.

"By all means," Lydia answered with a polite smile. "Too much testosterone?"

"Not enough common sense," Sara replied before sitting down.

"Allison, I'm bored," Lydia sighed closing her book.

"Quantum mechanics too mundane for you today?" Allison joked.

"Yes," the genius answered seriously. "It's too repetitive, everything basically boils down to using the same four equations to get different variations of the same answer, and without work that actually challenges my intellect I am going to go insane," she whined.

"You could do my algebra 2 homework," Isaac offered.

"Isaac I finished the entire semester's worth of homework the first week. It's not my fault you're falling behind," Lydia told him. "I don't want busy work; I want something that makes me think. Give me a problem; better yet give me a people problem. Give me something math doesn't solve."

"Sara's dating a cougar, dissect her relationship and leave me and Isaac alone," Allison replied.

"What? No!" Sara objected. "Not cool."

"Interesting," Lydia mused with a smirk. "I'm assuming they mean you're dating a metaphorical cougar, and not an Aztec shape shifter; so tell me, what's the age difference? How bad is it?"

"I am not discussing my serious romantic relationship with teenagers I barely know," Sara replied in a harsh whisper.

"I take it her family doesn't approve of you and while it doesn't bother her it bothers you," Lydia said.

"How do you know I'm not dating a guy?"

"Allison used cougar instead of cradle-robber," Lydia answered. "So, why doesn't the family like you? It's obviously not the age difference because you said it was serious and implied that teenagers wouldn't understand which indicates you've been together a long time, because most teenagers wouldn't understand the complexities of long term relationships. The fact you're whispering means you haven't told your friends about this relationship and you're protective of her, indicating she's been through something big, probably catastrophic, that she didn't deserve, so the last thing you're going to do is put her through more shit on your behalf."

"Is she always like this?" Sara asked.

"Yes, but it was much scarier before she voiced all of her thoughts out loud," Allison answered honestly. "Now that we know her thought processes we can properly recognize her genius and give it the weight it deserves in group decisions."

"Like when I made self-igniting Molotov cocktails and assumed you would throw them at who was attacking us without knowing what they were of if they would work," Lydia replied. "That was fun and Jackson almost peed his pants so it was totally worth the strange looks and feelings of terror I felt when it was happening. There is nothing that makes you reevaluate your priorities more than the adrenaline rush you get when running for your life."

Sara chose to stare at the teenagers in shock and awe, because it was obvious that they were choosing to be completely honest with her for some reason, and realized that nothing she would tell them would shock or scare them and that the content of the conversation wouldn't be discussed with anyone else outside of this group, and she really needed sound advice. "Her father and younger sister hate me," Sara admitted. "They thought I was using her as a bed warmer and I would break her heart, and while I did hurt her by leaving I did it because I knew it was wrong to make her choose between her family and me. Also I'm pretty sure her nephew tried to kill me at least twice."

"Why did you leave?" Lydia asked.

"Because I wasn't good for her in the state I was in," Sara answered honestly. "I knew if I asked she would help without hesitating, and I knew if she did help me, her family would condemn her for it."

"You have some serious self-worth issues," Lydia began, "and I am not judging because I used to act like a dumb blonde because I thought people would like me more, but you seriously need to call your girlfriend and tell her you love her because damn."

"That's you professional opinion, damn?" Isaac questioned.

"I used to think your relationship was complicated because Allison went from trying to kill you to trying to save you to you saving her and now you have this stupid we like each other but we won't make out vibe coupled with insane chemistry," Lydia explained. "But she just blew your relationship out of the water." She then directed her attention back to Sara, "and if you don't call your girlfriend and tell her that you love her before you leave town I will hunt you down and make you."

"Lydia," Allison said.

"Yes, Ally?"

"Let's not threaten the nice vigilante who helped us save Felicity," the hunter replied.

"If I can't threaten people when they are being stupid than what good is it being smart?" Lydia asked.

"Are you certain you're all teenagers?" Sara asked.

Isaac and Lydia just nodded. "I'll be eighteen in a few weeks," Allison admitted. "My family used to move around a lot so I got held back a year."

"So how long have you known Felicity?" Sara asked.

"We just met her yesterday," Lydia answered honestly. "But we've known Derek for about a year and Danny has been one of Felicity's best friends since early childhood. They met in grade school, the three of them were paired up for some buddy system thing and they just clicked."

"Three?" Sara questioned.

"Danny, Felicity, and Laura," Lydia answered. "Felicity was never around town often, but everyone knew that she and Laura were a package deal. A lot of people thought they were twins despite the age difference."

Sara nodded in understanding. "Hero worship, I was the same way with my older sister."

The bedroom door opened and Derek quickly stuck his head out before noticing most of the people he wanted to talk to were across the room. He stepped out slowly and gently shut the door before heading over to the table. "Have any of you heard from Scott or Stiles?"

"As far as I know Stiles is still with his dad and Scott is probably at home," Isaac answered. "Why?"

Derek sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. "Deucalion is worried. I think he wants everyone here in case something happens."

"Something like what?" Allison asked.

"Temporary short term memory loss," Derek answered.

"And Scott is going to help with that how?" Lydia asked.

Isaac mumbled something unintelligible under his breath that Sara and Allison couldn't make out, but Lydia's eyes widened slightly in understanding.

"Anyways, Deaton wants to start the procedure soon," Derek added. "I was hoping you guys could sit with her."

Isaac practically leaped off of the couch like it had caught fire and bounded to the other room, only looking back momentarily to make sure he hadn't upended Allison in his haste.

Lydia just rolled her eyes and started stacking her books before getting up from her seat. "Betas."

Allison glared at Derek. "When this is over you and I are having a conversation, because this is not typical Isaac behavior."

"What do you want me to do about it?" Derek asked.

"Gee, I don't know, talk to him!" she hissed.

"I tried," Derek defended himself.

"Then try harder, or my dagger will find a new home nestled between your metacarpals," she threatened, standing up so they were more even in height. They had silent battle of wills going on for several seconds before Derek showed his neck in submission and Allison gave a slight smile in response.

"You do realize that nothing I tell him is going to change his current behavior, right?" Derek double checked. "The reason that part of him is bending over backwards is because of Felicity being here and needing help. I've had years of practice to control my responses, Isaac's barely had one, not to mention the emotional turmoil this is putting him through."

"Then explain it to me so I know what's happening and I can help," Allison replied.

"Are you serious right now?" Derek questioned in exasperation. The hunter simply crossed her arms and made no indication of moving until Derek gave in. "Damnit, Allison," he grumbled under his breath. "Think of it like, getting a puppy. You get the puppy and it imprints on you because you're it's owner and then it doesn't matter if you love it or keep it or take It back to the pet store, that puppy is always going to love you. So then say something happens to you and the puppy has to have a new home, but it doesn't like it and while it accepts the new owner it's always waiting for you to come back, because the puppy thinks it's yours. And x number of owners later, your sister or your dad or someone you're close too comes to claim the puppy and it gets all excited because it still remembers you and so it listens to that person almost as well as it would listen to you because that owner was close to you. Does any of that make any sense?"

"Isaac is the puppy in this situation?" Allison questioned. "And you are?"

"I'm the dead owner, and Scott is the second owner, and then Felicity is the person who claimed the puppy," Derek answered.

"Am I the only one who finds it strange that you just compared your foster sibling to a puppy?" Sara questioned, from her spot at the table while staring at Derek as if he had spontaneously grown another nose.

"I think I get it," Allison nodded slowly in understanding. "But that still doesn't tell me why Isaac is so conflicted?"

"If Scott and your Dad got into trouble and they both had two equally appealing and morally acceptable ways out of it, who would you side with?" Derek asked.

"I guess it would depend on the situation," Allison answered.

"And there is a part of Isaac thinking like that," Derek told her. "There is the rational part that is telling him to think things through, to not jump the gun, and then there is the puppy part who wants nothing more than to do whatever Felicity wants, even though she specifically told him not to. Felicity is doing all of these things for Isaac and he feels indebted, but he doesn't seem to get that Felicity is doing these things because it's what she is supposed to be doing."

"She feels responsible," the hunter realized. "She was supposed to be here and she wasn't, so she feels responsible for everything that happened."

"My sister might not give a damn about a lot of the things that my family stood for, but the one thing she does believe is that family does everything to be there for one another," Derek explained. "When I took Isaac in, he became family and the fact that she wasn't there when Isaac and I needed her makes her feel responsible for everything that happened after."

Allison took a moment to process the new information Derek had given her and then came to a conclusion. "I officially like your sister more than I like you."

"I get that a lot," Derek smirked.

* * *

"Why does my head hurt?" Felicity groaned, when she started to come to. Her eyes weren't open yet, but it was clear she was out of the woods, health wise, considering she was complaining. "Did something fall on top of me?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" Deucalion asked.

"Uncle Duke? I thought you were in a meeting with Mom and Uncle Drew?" She slowly opened her eyes and saw her uncle sitting at her bedside, only he was wearing sunglasses. "Why are you wearing sunglasses?" She took another glance around the room and noticed a few people she didn't recognize, three of them teenagers, and a slightly older adult who looked remarkably like Drew. "Does Uncle Drew have a brother? I thought he was an only child?"

"Congratulations Derek, you officially resemble your father more than Talia," the alpha commented. Derek simply used one of his hands to cover his face and grimace. "Ms. Smoak, I am unsure of what you believe your last memories are, but I can assure you much time has passed since then."

"Hale," she corrected. "Smoak is aunt Clara's last name. I'm a Hale, Mom said so. Also, am I in trouble? You only use my last name when I'm in trouble."

"Lis, snap out of it," Derek said flashing his eyes.

"He can flash his eyes too," she replied. "C'mon, how come everybody can flash their eyes except me?"

"Felicity," Deucalion began, "I need you to focus now please." Felicity sighed heavily and rolled her eyes before meeting her uncle's gaze. "Thank you. Now, you were in an accident. You ate something you didn't know was poisonous and hit your head rather hard, do you remember this?"

"I think I would remember eating a peanut," Felicity replied. "Besides I'm not stupid, I know I'll die if I eat a peanut. I don't want to die; I haven't even built my first computer yet."

"You didn't eat a peanut," Deucalion told her. "You ate something else, and you needed a special kind of surgery, and because you had to undergo that, I needed to give you something."

"Like what?"

"I needed to give you some of my memories," he explained. "And because of this, your own memories will be a bit fuzzy for a few hours until they're resorted."

"Ok," she nodded. "Can I read while they do that?"

"No," he answered. "You have to sort through your own memories. Derek and Isaac and their friends are going to help you do that."

"How, I don't know them," the female alpha pointed out.

"Derek and Isaac are your family," Deucalion told her.

"Younger brothers," the teenager with the curly hair corrected. "I'm Isaac and that's Derek, and these are some of our friends, Lydia and Allison."

"Right," Felicity nodded skeptically. "Because apparently I have brothers, now. So if you're my brothers when's my birthday?"

"October 7," Derek answered.

"What's my cat's name?"

"You don't have one," Isaac answered.

Felicity scrunched her face up like she still wasn't sure whether or not to believe the two men. "Where's Laura? Where's Uncle Peter?"

"Peter is at his apartment," Derek answered with a sigh. "And for safety reasons, we're not calling him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Felicity questioned. "And where's Laura? Where's Mom?"

"Felicity," Deucalion began again, "there's-"

"No!" Felicity snapped. "Whatever you're going to tell me, just don't. Uncle Duke, I get that you're worried about me, but I just want someone to tell me the truth. No protecting me, no hiding things, no dancing around subjects. Now I asked you questions, where are my mom and sister?"

"They're dead," Allison answered.

"Allison," Isaac hissed.

"She's going to find out soon anyways," Allison replied. "It's better to tell her now."

"It's not your call!" Derek snapped.

"She has less than six hours to finish the transition, and twelve to prepare for the funeral. You wanted my help, this is me helping," Allison explained.

"They're dead?" Felicity questioned with a whisper looking to her uncle.

"Yes," Deucalion answered looking down at his feet.

"How? How long ago, how did they die?"

"Your mother and most of her family died in a fire set by a rogue hunter, named Kate Argent," Deucalion answered. "Laura was murdered by your uncle Peter in a fit of rage when he still recovering from his injuries. Your youngest sister Cora, managed to escape, Peter was the only other survivor. You, Laura, and Derek were at school when it happened."

"Why?" she questioned.

"She was crazy," Allison answered. "Kate, I mean. There's also the possibility of brainwashing, but mostly she was just crazy. She hated wolves."

"What happened to her?"

"Peter ripped her throat out," Lydia answered. "Along with almost all of her accomplices, and in between kills he terrorized and assaulted teenagers."

"And Laura? How did she die?"

"He ripped her in half for her spark," Lydia answered.

"I'm going to be sick," the alpha managed to choke out, before rushing out of bed to get to the bathroom and puked in the toilet. She felt someone pull her hair back, and looked up to see Isaac trying to help.

"It's shock," he told her. "It'll pass."

"No," she got out before another bout of heaving into the toilet started.

"It's safe here," Isaac said. "I can't promise everything will be ok, but it's safe here." He rubbed her back in a comforting gesture and took some of her pain while doing it. "Your friends are in the other room, if you wanted to see them too."

Felicity grabbed a piece of toilet paper off of the roll and wiped her face off before turning to Isaac. "You said we were siblings?"

"You and Derek and Cora took me in last year after my father was murdered," Isaac told her.

"I'm sorry," Felicity replied.

"Don't be. My father wasn't a good man. Derek had offered to let me stay with you guys before he died, but it wasn't until afterwards that I took the offer," the beta explained.

Felicity nodded in understanding and then started to get back up with Isaac's help. "So, if we've only known each other a year, how did you know I didn't have a cat?"

"You don't smell like cats," he answered simply.

"Good answer. I don't think I'm a cat person," she told him while they walked back to the bedroom. "So where exactly are we?" this time asking no one in particular."

"You're in my penthouse," Deucalion answered. "This is where I stay when I have business in Beacon Hills."

"And I don't live here?" she questioned before sitting back down.

"You live in Starling City," Derek answered. "You seem to like it there, although I can't fathom why."

"Ok?" Felicity noted. "So, when you transferred your memories, you began the inheritance process? So, I'm becoming an alpha now?"

"Essentially yes," Deucalion answered. "You already got your mother's power, and due to the circumstances I didn't feel it was wise to wait to pass down mine as well."

"And this funeral Allison mentioned. Whose is it?"

"You recovered your father's remains," Deucalion told her. "It's been a rather exciting first full moon for you."

"Why do I get the distinct impression that the excitement has only begun?" she asked with a nervous chuckle.

* * *

"How are you feeling?" Sara asked, sitting down next to her friend.

"Better," Felicity sighed. "At least I think I'm better." The younger blonde was still fairly pale, but she hadn't puked in the last few hours and that had to count for something. She had also regained a majority of her memories, not that she was going to tell her friends that. They didn't need to know about the werewolf aspects of what had happened to her over the past two days.

"How's your uncle?"

"He's sleeping."

"Your friends seemed surprised he was willing to try and help you," Sara began. "Is there a story there?"

"Not a good one, or so I'm told," the werewolf admitted. "After Deucalion was attacked he changed. He became an entirely different person. He caused some trouble here a few months back and about two months ago most people believed he was beyond saving. Derek thought differently, so Scott and Derek got him out of it and convinced him to rethink his priorities. I'm not sure that the rest of their group really believed he could change, hopefully what happened will help them be more accepting."

"What did he do, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Apparently, he got two of their friends killed; one on purpose, one not," the tech wizard revealed.

"That explains why they won't leave him alone," Sara said. "So, what's up? What can I do to help?"

"I wanted to give you something as a thank you gift," Felicity replied. The werewolf grabbed her bag off of the night stand and pulled out a cell phone and tossed it to her new friend. "John told me what you did with the bag of herbs that Oliver likes to take, the ones that made me sick."

"You're giving me a phone?" She questioned.

"It's encrypted," Felicity told her. "As long as every time you call or text the same number you're more than five miles from where you made the last one, it can't be traced. It also allows for video calls, assuming that they're not longer than two minutes."

Sara stared at the phone in shock for a moment before her gaze went over to Felicity and then back to the phone. "Why- What- How-?"

"Twelve cell phones," the tech said. "Since we became friends you've gotten twelve different cell phones, which tells me whoever you're calling you care about a lot. You care about them so much you don't want to put them in danger by giving up your location but at the same time you want them to know that you're ok and that you care."

"Thank you," Sara told her. "This means a lot."

"I also need a small favor, which you can totally feel free to decline," Felicity added. "And if you do say yes, I might have to swear you to secrecy."

Sara just shook her head back and forth with a smile on her face. "Something tells me I'm going to regret this."

* * *

"Why do I have a knot in the pit of my stomach?" Sara asked as she pushed her temporarily wheelchair bound friend into the front door of a nursing home.

"Because Gerard is vicious, manipulative, brainwashing, mass murdering, psychopath," Allison answered. "He is worse than the scum on the bottom of Hitler's shoes."

"And we're visiting him because?" Sara questioned.

"I want him to tell me what he did to Deucalion, among other things," Felicity answered simply.

"When Scott and I came and asked about it, he lied," the hunter replied. "What makes you think he won't lie to you?"

"He will want to rub it in my face. He hurt the people I care about and when he learns who I am he will want what I have. He'll want the ability to get better, and he'll want to kill me for my title and the fact that I am a lowly mutt who doesn't deserve to walk on the same ground as his sacred ass."

"Answers like that only make me want to drag you back to the hotel," Sara said.

"Why do you think I didn't bring Oliver or John?" Felicity asked with a smirk.

"You are positively wicked Felicity Smoak," Sara noted.

"I'm told it runs in the family," the alpha replied.

"You're not actually going to cure him, are you?" the Allison double checked.

"Allison, I don't trust him enough to cure him. I wouldn't even be here if I thought there was another way to get the information I need," Felicity told the teenager. "I am taking into account that the man is a vicious monster and hoping this will work in my favor."

"So why do I have to be here?" Allison asked.

"Weekdays are for family visits only. You share DNA with the man, therefore you and anyone you bring with you is allowed to visit, i.e. me and Sara, although if we mentioned who my mother was he might want to meet me on 'wow' factor alone."

"You do realize he's probably going to try and kill you, right? He tried to kill Derek, he got Kate to kill most of your family, he brainwashed me into torturing Erica and Boyd. He's evil in its purest form."

"Clearly you haven't spent enough time with Peter," Felicity commented. "That's probably a good thing, actually."

"Question," Sara began. "If this Gerard is so evil, why are we going to talk to him?"

"He has some research that I need," Felicity said.

"And when you say research?" Sara asked.

"She means that he tortured people and took copious and detailed notes on what happened while he did his 'work'," Allison answered. "I hope what's his face is worth this. He won't give you the research for free."

"Five minutes, that's all I need," Felicity said. "I talk, he lies, I get the truth by either forcing his hand to reveal them or I make him think my one true love has been kidnapped and I need his research to save him."

Allison stepped in front of the wheelchair's path, stopping Felicity from being advanced and looked the alpha in the eye. "Why do you really want it?"

"Vengeance?" Felicity tried to lie. The hunter simply glared at the alpha, knowing that the female wolf barely had a violent bone in her body. "Personal curiosity?"

"If you were Peter, I might buy that," the teenager admitted. "But you're not. You couldn't even find it in you to kill the person who butchered your closest sibling and wouldn't hesitate to do the same to you. So why do you want Gerard's research?"

"I want to get rid of it, the bond with him," the tech admitted with a wince.

"Turn her around. We're not seeing the psycho-fuck today," Allison declared storming off towards her car and away from the nursing home.

"Allison, c'mon," Felicity pleaded. "You honestly can't agree with my people's culture of archaic marriage and mating practices. I've technically been engaged since I was five years old for Christ's sake."

"Do you love him?" Allison asked simply.

"I was five," Felicity argued. "I loved everything at that age. I also went through a three-year period where I wanted to be Mrs. Captain Crunch, but I wasn't married off to the heir of general mills."

"You want to know one of the first things we're taught about hunting?"

"We hunt those who hunt us," Felicity recited the hunting code.

"No. We're taught to survive, to know when to fight and when to look the other way. This custom has been around for hundreds of years and it is the one custom that both sides respect and know not to interfere with no matter the circumstances. And the fact that Gerard experimented with it makes me sick, and it should make you sick too."

"It does," the alpha admitted. "It makes me so sick I'm going to this meeting in a wheelchair because I don't want to appear weak by collapsing in front of the smarmy sadistic bastard who tried to behead my brother and wants my head as a trophy on his freaking mantle."

"That's not enough of a reason to want to sign your own death warrant."

"He doesn't love me, Allison. I'm a friend at best and if he knew who I was he would've killed me for existing. To him I'm the annoying girl whose family came to visit his every once in a while because our parents were friends. He doesn't love me; not like I love him. I need Gerard's research because there is a chance that I can get out of this stupid arrangement without one of us dying. And it is a gamble I'm more than willing to take if it means he'll be happy."

"I'm sorry. You have my sympathy and my respect, but I can't take you to see Gerard," Allison told them. "If it were just me I had to think about I would sign you both in no questions asked. But Isaac cares about you and I can't take that away from him. I can't take away another person he cares about, intentionally or not. If you want to know what really happened to Deucalion you can ask my father, he'll tell you the truth, but Gerard is too dangerous."

"What if you had to marry Stiles?" Felicity asked. "What if you were in my shoes?"

"I would never marry Stiles, and if my mother were still alive, I have a very good feeling I would be in your shoes," Allison answered honestly. "But unlike you I would use my brain, find another way that didn't involve being suicidal. Now if you would like a ride back to the hotel to get ready for your father's funeral I would be more than happy to help, but I am not helping you with this. This is where I draw the line." The hunter then started heading back to her car, not even bothering to see if the alpha and the other human were following her.

"I can see why your brother likes her," Sara said.

"Aren't you in a committed yet complicated relationship?" Felicity questioned.

"It's an observation," Sara pointed out. "Besides, I'm much more interested in this arranged marriage you appear to be in. Anybody I know?" Sara carefully began pushing her friend's wheelchair after the aggravated teenager.

"I can hack your fake Facebook account in less than ten seconds, and put you on the no fly list in less than sixty," the alpha threatened.

"It is?" Sara realized with a grin. "Really?"

"Not a word to Oliver or John."

"Do you at least know if he's any good in bed?"

* * *

"I look ridiculous," Felicity said as she looked at her reflection in the full length mirror of the penthouse. She was wearing a black dress with red accents running down the sides and around the bottom hem. She tried to wear heels but her siblings had protested saying that she was too unstable on her feet to wear anything besides flats. Her hair was down, much to he discontent, but she knew if she put it into her usual high ponytail she would look even more like a child playing dress-up.

"I think you look nice," Derek commented.

"You're an ass," She told him looking over her shoulder. Her elder brother had chosen to wear pressed jeans and a black dress shirt with a white tie, and while she really wanted to order him to wear a suit, she also knew that her father's will said not to dress in formal wear and that he wanted to be cremated in the preserve and have his ashes spread around the perimeter of the house. She had no idea how she was going to pull that one off since she had sold back the land to Beacon County, but Derek and Deucalion had told her not to worry about it. "I look like a kid."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news Ms. Smoak, but that is the outfit's intention," Deucalion told her from his seat on the couch. He was holding an old bottle of scotch in one hand and his usual cane with the other. "Despite wanting to keep this affair private to close family and friends, other packs will most likely send representatives if not their Lts. They will scout for any perceived weaknesses and either attack or try and recruit. If you look weak your opponents will underestimate you, and your victories will be held with higher regard."

"What did I say about killing people?" Felicity scolded her uncle/mentor.

"There is a difference between attacking others outright and protecting those you care about," Deucalion pointed out. "If looking out for you puts me in your bad books, then it is a price I will have to pay."

"For once, I agree with him," Isaac said from his spot in the doorway. "Cora called, her plane just landed, Lydia went to go pick her up." Isaac had chosen to wear jeans and a dress shirt as well, only instead of a black shirt and white tie he had opted for a white shirt and black tie.

"Did you two coordinate?" Felicity asked teasingly, pointing back and forth between the two betas.

"Ha ha," Derek replied dryly. "You're a riot."

There was a knock at the door and Felicity quickly moved to answer it. Upon opening the door to see John and Oliver wearing fancy suits and Sara looking like she was ready to strangle someone for forcing her to wear what appeared to be an Easter dress, Felicity realized the problem. She quickly grabbed Sara by the wrist and began dragging her back to the bedroom she had occupied. "I need you to help me look like a badass so my family's company doesn't have to experience a hostile takeover. I'm sure there's something in Kali's former closet that will fit you. Isaac, Derek, help them with," she paused and pointed vaguely in her two male friend's direction, "that." She shooed Sara into the room and shut and locked the door. "Help, please," Felicity almost begged. "I get that this is probably crossing some type of weird friendship boundary, but I need to look like a badass, because the only other alternative is to look like a preteen girl, and that is not a look I am comfortable pulling off, and if you would like to change out of that cheery pastel monstrosity, I wouldn't blame you at all."

"Alright," Sara nodded with a determined grin. "Let's see what we have to work with."

* * *

Felicity was a little surprised at the attendance turnout for a man who had been dead for twenty-five years. She recognized almost every face from family albums, and the ones she didn't recognize we're quickly proven to be significant others. Father O'Connell had flown up from New Orleans to give the service in accordance with her father's wishes, and there were barely any werewolves in attendance from other packs, but Deucalion had pointed out every emissary who had shown up to pay respects. What surprised her the most was when Thierry Vanchure had asked if he could give a few words before they lit the bonfire, and considering the last time they had hung out together they were both nearly black out drunk and she'd had to blackmail him just to do karaoke in front of a crowd one fourth of this size, she was wondering if maybe he was possessed. But there he was, standing next to the pyre with his trumpet in one hand and wiping sweat off of his brow with the other.

"I was just a kid when I first met Sam," he began, his voice wavering from nerves. "I'd barely been in the quarter for a year at that point, and even then I knew Sammy Smoak was a legend among the locals and everybody loved him. So, one day, I get a call from Marcel saying that he needs to talk to me down at the abattoir, and when I get there Deucalion and Marcel are talking quietly in the corner, and Sam is just sitting in one of the chairs, looking dejectedly at his feet, and all I can think is 'oh god what happened? Who died?' And he must have heard me approach because he suddenly looks up at me with these big, brown, watery, doe eyes and says 'Thierry, please teach me to play the trumpet?' and it wasn't until I got over the initial shock that I agreed. And the words weren't even completely out of my mouth yet when Marcel and Deucalion burst into obnoxious laughter, and they're both crying and rolling around on the floor from laughing so hard. I had no idea what was so funny about the situation but after the first couple of lessons I started to get the idea," he chuckled lightly to himself. "At the end of the first week I was convinced Sam couldn't get any worse, the second week I was ready to stab myself in the ears, and by the middle of the third week I was so fed up I pried the trumpet out of his hands mid piece and threw it out the window and onto Bourbon St." He paused for a second and Felicity could tell from the smiling faces that this was a familiar story and had been heard before. "After I had calmed down, I asked why he was so set on learning how to play this piece and he told me. He said, 'It's Talia's favorite song, and he wanted to play it for her at their anniversary party in a few months.' So naturally I replied with 'Sam, if you love your wife half as much as everyone seems to think you do, you will never play an instrument in front of her ever'." Thierry paused for a few seconds, whether it was for laughter or if he simply needed a minute, Felicity wasn't sure. "Anyways, I'm not the best at speeches or stories, so I figured I would just play something I knew he liked."

Felicity didn't need him to identify the song he'd chosen after the first few notes, and when she looked at Derek and Cora's faces she could tell they had recognized it as well. To say that the three of them knew it better than their own heart beats wouldn't be a stretch considering all three of them had their own music box that played the same song almost every night of their lives.

"I told myself I wasn't going to cry," Felicity sniffled, while trying to not let the unshed tears spill from her eyes.

"I snuck a package of peanuts into Isaac's jacket pocket so we could blame it on allergies," Derek whispered.

"You two are pathetic," Cora told them while tears rolled silently down her face. "Faking minor allergic reactions to save your pride. Just cry openly like normal people. It's a funeral, no one cares."

"I can't I'm an ugly crier," the alpha admitted.

"Derek's probably not much better," Isaac reasoned. "I caught him reading 'A Fault In Our Stars' a few months ago when he thought no one was home. It wasn't pretty."

"There were some very uncomfortable parallels in the book that I was attempting to come to terms with," Derek replied defensively.

Felicity and Cora both winced, knowing he was referring to Paige. Cora hadn't even met the girl and she still knew how much Derek had cared and how much her death had impacted him, even before the fire. Felicity, on the other hand, at least had a face and an impression to put with the name, granted they had only chatted via webcam once or twice when Derek had supposed to be doing his homework, but the eldest sibling had liked her and thought she was good for Derek.

When Thierry finished the song he quickly stepped away from the front of the pyre and went back to the back, so Father Kieran could say a few closing words.

"And so we return your remains to the ground you came from," Kieran began. "Let your spirit watch and guide us, and may you reunite with the loved ones you spent your life protecting on the other side. You will always be remembered. You will always be missed." He nodded to Deucalion and then Felicity before stepping back towards the crowd.

Deucalion took a few careful steps towards the pyre and when he felt he was close enough he opened the bottle of scotch he had been holding and poured a small amount on the unlit wood and bones. "Ut te semper currere liberum sub lumine lunae cursum," he said before putting the lid back on and going back to stand next to his charge and her family. Felicity started to take a few steps forward towards the torch, but as she moved forward her steps became smaller and smaller while her hands trembled and shook. Her vision was blurry and as she started to reach for it all she could picture were flames and screams completely overpowered her ability to hear. "I'm sorry," she barely managed to get out with a whimper, before she turned and ran into a hard chest and comforting arms wrapped around her frame.

"I've got you, kiddo," he whispered. "Your safe here."

Felicity thought she heard a collective gasp of shock from the group, but she was too busy trying not to let her collected grief consume her. She wanted to hide in his embrace, even if there was a part of her saying she had to stay strong, there was a larger part of her that wanted nothing more than to run away and hide. "They're gone."

"I know kiddo," he told her. "I know. I'm here, you're safe."

"I'm not strong enough, I'll never be strong enough."

"Yes you will," he told her with conviction. "All it takes is a little time, and the wisdom to know when to ask for help."

"Help me?" she pleaded.

"Always."

She turned around, but made sure to stay nestled under one of his arms and together they lit the wood and bone ablaze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to guess who you think the mystery guy at the end is. First person to guess correctly gets a sneak preview and brownie points.


	6. An Irish Wake is the Only Wake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Wake aka where Felicity's family and friends drink lots and interact with each other while Felicity struggles to juggle life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. So here is the last part of the funeral/wake/reception. I'm not sure I like how it turned out. I might change it later, the penny is still in the air on that.
> 
> so, I'm trying this thing where I respond to comments, which is why this is a few hours late, but I made up for it with a longer chapter.
> 
> P.S. I do mean all of the comments, like every single one, unless you posted more than one, then I responded to all of them at once. And if I can't fit them all in one box I will put them at the bottom.
> 
> KK1986: I am always glad to introduce people to new things. Glad you like it thus far.
> 
> OhhMyyDarla: The eventual plan is to have most people on Teen Wolf interact with most people on Arrow. When the complete immersion will happen I have no idea, but hopefully I'll get there. As for the sibling bonding moments, those are always going to be highlights, mostly because I love writing crazy siblings, mostly because I have a crazy sibling. As for how exactly everyone has met before the story will be revealed, eventually. I have a plan. No seriously, I have a plan. And next chapter is pretty much all team arrow. so there's that.
> 
> Cece_Summer: The working together thing will come back and bite them. I just won't say how... yet... 
> 
> heidi2310: There's a schedule, much to my dismay there is a schedule. And I'm glad you like this.
> 
> MajesticMia: I am giving myself migraines trying to combine these fandoms and work out timelines. If the plot bunnies didn't keep multiplying and dragging me in different directions I probably would've scrapped this a while ago, but alas they are very much alive and having plot bunny babies... lots of babies... or is it bunnies? Also, I like TO more than TVD, and as of right now I'm pretty much exclusively pulling on TO, not to say TVD won't make an impact, just that that particular bunny has not emerged from the bunny masses yet.
> 
> Hasna: Always glad to open people up to new and exciting things. Hopefully this chapter won't disappoint.

 

 

"Jealousy is not a good look on you," John noted as he watched Oliver glare daggers into the stranger that happened to be hugging Felicity and hadn't left her side in more than forty-five minutes.

"I'm not jealous," Oliver immediately shot back. "I'm just… confused."

"It's a funeral," John pointed out. "There really isn't much to be confused about."

"I don't mean the funeral," the blonde man replied. "God, this funeral is the only thing that has happened the past few days that even makes the tiniest amount of sense." He ran his hand down his haggard features and sighed heavily.

"Have you slept at all since we got to town?" the bodyguard wondered, as he examined his bosses features with more scrutiny than usual. Oliver's normally pristine suit was wrinkled, even without his jacket, and his slacks having been replaced by jeans. The sleeves of his shirt were barely staying rolled to his elbows, his tie was too loose to be considered casual or even relaxed, and the normally present dark circles seemed to have doubled in severity.

"No," he answered simply. "I've been too wired to sleep, and even when I try… Sleeping isn't an option right now," he amended. "Where is Sara?"

"Lydia dragged her somewhere when most of the crowd started to disperse," Diggle answered. "Something about needing assistance with an errand before going back to the house."

They heard a series of loud clicks and looked behind them to see a few photographers accompanied by Isabel Rochev with a triumphant smirk on her face.

"You've got to be kidding me." Oliver groaned quietly to himself.

"Fancy seeing you here," Isabel said as she approached the two men. "Is it company policy now, to attend the funerals of our employee's family members?"

"I'm not here in an official capacity," Oliver replied. "My family has been good friends with the Hale family for a long time, I'm just here to give support."

"And the fact your secretary appears to be crying in the arms of another man has nothing to do with your presence here?" Isabel questioned skeptically.

"She's putting someone she cared about to rest, have some decency and let her and her family grieve in peace," John said.

"I'm sorry who are you again?" The woman asked in a bored tone. "That's right, the chauffeur."

"What seems to be the problem here?" Thierry asked, trumpet still in hand and a woman by his side.

"And you are? Wait, don't tell me you're the stage musician," Isabel insulted.

"Excuse me?!" Thierry asked, clearly offended.

"Thierry," the other woman said, sliding her hand around his arm trying to calm him down. "Let's not make a scene. It's Sam's funeral, he wouldn't want violence, and I have a feeling a bar room brawl in the middle of the preserve is the last thing Felicity and her family want to deal with right now."

"They deserve the right to grieve in peace," Thierry growled as he glared at the photographers who had yet to stop snapping pictures of his friends. "I would leave, before I have the mind to make you disappear."

"Are you threatening me?" Isabel asked with a glare that could kill.

"No," Thierry smirked. "If I told you that you would die in silent agony, unable to scream or beg while I tortured you, and how after I would drain you dry of every drop of your acidic blood and dump your rotting corpse somewhere not even the devil himself would look for it, then I would be threatening you, but luckily for you I'm in a sentimental mood."

"How very melodramatic," Isabel yawned bored.

The angered man started to take a step forward when the woman next to him stopped him, by turning and blocking his path, with a small smile gracing her features she quickly leaned forward and whispered something in his ear. When she leaned back Thierry had a look of happy shock and adoration in his face, and she nodded almost minutely before her hand twitched ever so slightly.

There was a loud undignified yelp of pain from several feet away and everyone looked to where Isabel Rochev had appeared to have sunk half a foot in height. Upon closer inspection the three men noticed her right foot had sunk into a sink hole and it looked like her leg was twisted at an awkward angle.

"You have to be careful," the woman with Thierry smirked. "Walking around in six inch heels in a wildlife preserve, the terrain isn't exactly known for being stable. Shame about the shoes though, they might've looked nice on someone more suited for them."

Thierry chuckled lightly and the two wove their fingers together and began heading off. "I'm sure we'll see you two boys back at the house," he said amicably. "I look forward to hearing more about you both."

"You probably shouldn't move," Oliver advised, when he noticed his business partner was trying to pull her foot out of the hole she was now trapped in.

Isabel shot him a glare and looked like she wanted to add something to her silent remark, when she was interrupted by a woman walking over.

"Someone yelped in pain. I do believe that is my queue," the woman smiled politely, and then noticed Isabel's leg. "Don't move, let me grab the boys. Scott! Isaac! Derek! Assistance!" She then knelt down and lightly ran her fingers along Isabel's leg. "I won't know for certain until we can get an x-ray, but from the tension of your muscles and the angle your leg is twisted I'd say you're dealing with a spiral fracture, and a fairly nasty one at that."

"You're a doctor?" Isabel questioned.

"Melissa McCall, I'm an ER nurse, and I've treated a lot worse than this," she replied. "Now, are you feeling a tingling sensation in your lower or upper leg or is it more of a throbbing pain?"

"I'm fine," Isabel tried to insist.

"Mom?" One of the teenagers from the loft questioned while Derek and Isaac flanked each side.

"Scott, honey, I need you to get the emergency kit from the trunk of my car," Melissa instructed. "Isaac, Derek, I need one of you one each side so she doesn't put any weight on her leg." The wolves quickly went to work, Derek and Isaac put Isabel's arms over their shoulders, much to her displeasure, and Scott took off at a sprint. "Tingling of throbbing?"

"Throbbing," Isabel grunted as Isaac and Derek lifted her out of the hole.

"Good," Melissa nodded to herself. "That means there probably isn't bone marrow in your blood stream. However, if you do start getting a tingling sensation you need to say so, because once it's in your blood stream and it reaches your heart it will kill you. Now, let's get you to the ER." Melissa carefully shifted back to full height. "Now who brought a vehicle with a large back seat?"

"You can take mine," the stranger offered, the same one Oliver had been glaring at and still hadn't left Felicity's side, who also happened to have his arm wrapped around her shoulders. "It's a rental, but it has a big back seat." He pulled the keys from his pocket and tossed them to Derek. "Besides, I'm sure I can find a ride," he said looking pointedly at Felicity.

"I hate it when you play the good Samaritan card," Felicity grumbled.

"You two have a history I should know about?" the stranger asked, glancing back and forth between Felicity and Isabel. "Normally you're the first to scold me for not offering assistance."

" _An illa est molestus ferreo canis exprimamus_ ," Felicity replied.

Isabel wasn't entirely sure what the blonde woman had said, but she could tell from the tone it wasn't flattering.

"Damn, tell it to me straight why don't you," he smirked. "You even broke out the Latin and everything."

"Marcel," Felicity smiled as she shook her head back and forth. "She's one of my bosses."

Marcel let out a low whistle, "Isabel Rochev, I take it. Glad to put a name with a face, even if you are trespassing on private property and disrupting the peace."

"It's a wildlife preserve," Isabel sneered.

"Not where you're standing, it's not," Marcel pointed out. "You see this land, or rather this specific section belongs to my friend and her family, has for a long time now, and since you are most certainly unwelcome here, that means you are breaking the law, several actually since you dragged those reporters and photographers with you. So how about you accept the help I am offering and never come back, that way I won't ask Felicity for a ride down to the Sheriff's station to file a restraining order."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Isabel replied coolly.

"So the three of my fight nights you tried to crash, about six months ago in the French Quarter don't ring any bells? I find that particularly hard to believe considering we sent you back in an ambulance at least once," Marcel pointed out. Isabel bristled at the mention of the memory and flinched. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I'd leave town after you get patched up by the good doctors, unless you want me to make a public statement in front of these nice journalists you had accompany you?"

Rochev held Marcel's gaze as long as she dared, but when Scott came back with the emergency kit and took the car keys from Derek, she lowered her eyes and Derek, Melissa, and Isaac helped her get in the back seat.

"You didn't tell me someone was crashing fight night?" Felicity mentioned casually.

"Didn't know who she was," Marcel replied evenly. "Sent her home the first two times, the third time she wouldn't leave until she stepped foot in the ring, and then she refused to tap out against one of my beginners. When she lost consciousness I called 911, rescheduled the matches for the next week. Never saw her again, until now that is."

"It doesn't make any sense," Felicity began. "Why would she even go to one of your fights?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," he shrugged. "You know how I feel about involving others. It's not worth the hassle it brings."

"You didn't say that when Laura wanted to fight," Felicity pointed out.

"That's because your sister knew how to defend herself," Marcel pointed out. "So, are you going to introduce me to your friends? Or should I just continue to ignore the fact one of them has been glaring holes into my back for an hour."

Felicity just covered her eyes with her hand and looked at the ground, "Why do most of the men in my life insist on acting like children?" she sighed heavily.

"Because they're men," Allison answered.

Felicity startled at the teenager's response, not having realized the teenager had even walked over to where they were talking. "Are you sure you're a human?"

"Completely," Allison smiled politely. "Deucalion is having your dad's ashes put in an urn. He asked me to give you these while he made sure the graveyard attendant didn't drop them." She held out a small wooden box with the alpha pack's symbol carved on the lid.

"Are those- I mean- are they all-" Felicity stammered.

"Pretty sure," Allison answered, still holding out the box for the older woman to take.

Felicity gingerly took the box and lifted the lid slightly, after checking that all of his claws were there she quickly put the lid back and nodded repeatedly. "Yep, they're all there. I kind of wish I hadn't double checked, but they are definitely all there."

"You felling alright?" Marcel asked.

"I need a drink," Felicity decided. "Please tell me you brought booze?"

"I brought a case of Wolfhound with your name on it," Marcel smiled. "Time to see how that upgraded metabolism is treating you."

"Upgraded metabolism?" Oliver questioned.

There was a part of Felicity that knew Oliver had been standing not five feet away from her for the last few minutes, she had just made a comment about how he was immature after all, but that part didn't have control of her reflexes so she jumped in shock at her friend's question. "I'm getting you a bell," she said automatically.

John just smiled good naturedly and held out his hand for introductions. "John Diggle, the mature friend."

"Marcel Gerard," he shook the other man's hand. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." Marcel moved on to Oliver and offered his hand in greeting. "You look familiar, you don't happen to spend a lot of time in the French Quarter, do you?"

"No, I can't say I've ever been," Oliver answered. "I'm Oliver."

"Oliver?" Marcel repeated. "Isn't that the name of the-" Only for most of the unnecessary air to leave his lungs rather suddenly.

"No," Felicity told him, after removing her elbow from his stomach. "That was Will, and he was an ass."

"You don't even know what I was going to ask," Marcel pointed out.

"You were going to ask about the kid who used to pull my hair," Felicity replied. "I've known you a long time, and I know know how you think. Also, you said if you ever saw him you were going to scare him so bad he'd wet himself."

"He used to pull your hair," Marcel argued. "And that wasn't what I was going to ask."

"Marcel, drop it, please," she told him. "I'm not talking about him, end of current conversation topic."

"Did something happen between you two?" Marcel asked.

"Yeah, I ended it," Felicity snapped.

"Well, she tried to," Allison amended. "Will is the fiancé you mentioned earlier?"

"That engagement was never official," Felicity argued.

"You sent me a wedding invitation," Marcel told her.

"Yeah, because you wouldn't shut up about it," Felicity shot back. Felicity turned to look at Oliver and John. Oliver was wearing a look of confusion and shock, while John just nodded understandingly. "Is it really that hard to believe that I had a life before we became friends?"

Oliver opened and closed his mouth wordlessly a few times, like he was trying to say something and it simply wasn't being voiced out loud.

"I think he's simply shocked considering that you've revealed more personal information about yourself in the past three days then you have the entire time we've known you," John explained.

"Sorry?" Felicity replied with an odd expression on her face. "I don't like talking about my past with people who don't already know."

"I'm still trying to understand the whole metabolism comment," Oliver admitted.

"Yes, thank you Marcel for disclosing my private medical information," Felicity scolded.

"I'm your friend, not your doctor," the man replied. "Not that I would ever consider a career in the medical field, it would be too weird, and I would have to take way too much time off of my work."

Felicity rolled her eyes good naturedly at her friend. "Can I have a minute with the guys?"

"Yeah," the vampire answered automatically. "I actually wanted to catch up with Father Kieran for a minute, he looked really worried earlier before the service." Marcel smiled politely and headed over towards the priest.

"And I'm going to try and call Stiles," Allison added. "See why he hasn't shown up yet."

'Thank you' Felicity mouthed to the teenager in gratitude, before turning to face her friends. She carefully took a deep slow breath and held it in for a couple of seconds before letting it out through her nose. "I'm not dying," she immediately began. "Just let me start out by saying that the condition I have isn't life threatening or going to kill me. It's not like I have cancer or AIDS or any number of painful and deadly diseases that kills everyone it comes into contact with. I always knew there was a possibility that I could have it, it's genetic after all, but most of the time it manifests in puberty and I didn't get it until a month ago, and come on, do I seriously look like a teenager to you two? Although that could be taken the wrong way out of context considering I am the shortest person in my family and it does give people somewhat of a wrong first impression, especially when I answer the door in my pajamas. Not that I only ever answer the door in my pajamas because I don't always. It's just that my delivery guy always drops off packages before 8am, and normally I'm not dressed yet, not to say that I'm not dressed at all, simply that I haven't changed into work attire… and I'm stopping in 3… 2… 1 … Now."

"You have a genetic metabolic condition that isn't going to kill you," Oliver pieced together. "Your family has it, but you thought you didn't have it because normally it manifests in the teenage years. You were diagnosed one month ago."

"It's also why I reconnected with Deucalion," She continued. "He's been helping me manage it the past few weeks, make sure I've got everything under control."

"So what does this condition affect?" John asked. "You haven't even mentioned it's name."

"Back in the seventeen hundreds it was called the mark of the beast, now we just call it what it is, an overactive thyroid. My stomach is a black hole, I can't get drunk anymore, occasional mood swings, and my body's new found inability to break down certain substances," Felicity explained. "My dad was actually working on a type of liquor that would affect people with the condition, which Marcel has helped perfect over the years, Wolfhound Whiskey. I miss tequila. Tequila is nice. Thierry and I actually got really drunk off of it after Laura died and I blackmailed him into singing Proud Mary with me at a karaoke bar. Actually, I need to interrogate the girlfriend, he hasn't been in a relationship in while, so this must be pretty serious."

"Felicity," Oliver gently pulled her back to the topic at hand.

"Right sorry," she winced apologetically. "I probably should have mentioned this before, but we've all kind of been dealing with our own issues right now, and something as inconsequential as a thyroid condition didn't seem important. I didn't want you guys to worry unnecessarily."

"And the herbs you took, does your reaction to those have anything to do with your thyroid condition?" Oliver asked.

"My condition is what kept me alive as long as I was," the alpha answered honestly. "Oliver, I don't know why you take that stuff but every time you do there is a ninety-five percent chance you could seriously injure your self. Every time you take that, it's a gamble, and eventually you're going to wind up on the losing side. You need to stop before it kills you."

"It doesn't sound like you're giving me much of a choice," Oliver noted.

"You're right," Felicity smiled politely. "I'm not. Now, c'mon I have ashes to spread over a larger pile of ashes and according to Derek we're having food after."

* * *

"Whose house is this?" Felicity asked stepping out of the driver's side of Laura's car.

She was staring at a large ranch style home that seemed to be in some type of U shape surrounded by a dark wooden fence, that went around the edges of the property and stopped at the entrance of the private section of the preserve.

"Ours," Derek answered, getting out of the passenger side and moving his seat forward.

"Well, technically it's yours," Cora corrected after she climbed out. "After Mom died it went into your name."

"No, I'm serious. Whose house is this?" Felicity asked again.

"You honestly didn't think Mom was going to let us live in the old Hale house after you moved home?" Cora questioned as she helped Isaac out of the cramped opening. "It was a mess, even before it became a barely standing charcoal briquette. The plumbing was outdated, the appliances were fifty years old, and we were all sharing bedrooms."

"Why are we here?" Felicity asked turning to her siblings.

"It didn't make sense to put them to rest where they were never happy," Derek supplied, going to the trunk and opening it.

"Them?" the alpha questioned.

"Mom, Dad, Martin, Laura, Erica, and Boyd," Derek answered. "As long as you're ok with it. You're the oldest."

It was then that Felicity realized her siblings were still waiting for her. That no matter how much time had passed or what had happened to them, they still wanted to be there for her. Maybe some people weren't there any more and a name or two got added, but it didn't change the significance of the group. They were still family. "I'd like that, I'd like that very much," She nodded while tears began to gather in her eyes again. She quickly swiped at them before her makeup would get more ruined, and went over to where they were standing.

There were six urns in a large box, along with each set of claws in separate smaller boxes. The urns had different stripes in three colors differentiating rank and pack status, and the smaller boxes had initials carved into the top. The four siblings quickly divided the remains and instead of going in the house they went around to the back yard where there was a lone tree in the corner to the left of the property equal distance from the fence as it was to the preserve. Felicity wasn't sure what kind of tree it was, or even how old it was, but she knew it wasn't more than fifty years old based on it's height and size. As they approached she noticed a small ditch that ran about two feet away from the trunk of the tree and all the way around.

"Mom said that Martin planted it when she told him she was pregnant with you," Derek said. "She had it transplanted here when the house was being built."

"I dug the circle," Isaac said. "I remember reading that ashes can actually help plant growth. I thought if we put the ashes where the tree's roots could access them, it would help it grow more. I know it's not what your dad asked for, but I figured this was something he would approve of, since he planted it."

"Yeah," she agreed wholeheartedly. "Thanks cub."

* * *

It turns out Derek had asked Deucalion to buy the siblings twenty minutes, so by the time Felicity was ready to go inside she had about five minutes to do a quick run through of the main area and make sure everything was presentable. Derek, Isaac, and Cora had placed all of the boxes on the mantle, but made sure to put some baubles in front of them so people wouldn't actually open them.

Lydia was the first to arrive with Sara and large amounts of food and booze. Felicity assumed Lydia either had a fake ID or she had somehow convinced Sara to pick it all up on her behalf.

"Isaac! Derek! Help with the food and drinks please!" Lydia yelled as she walked through the front door carry two large paper grocery bags. She set the bags on the kitchen counter and immediately went into planner mode, which Felicity could tell She and Sara found somewhat intimidating, if avoiding the banshee like the plague was any indication.

"Lydia is scary smart, like so smart she is actually very scary," Sara clarified, while they milled about the living room.

"Her grandmother is a goddess among programmers," Felicity said. "She was a legend at MIT, so I imagine genius intellect runs in her family."

"I'm kind of glad she's not working with the bad guys," the older blonde added.

"Thank you," Felicity said after a few seconds of silence. "Thank you for helping with all of this family stuff. I know we don't really know each other that well, and at the best we're amicable acquaintances, but it really does mean a lot to me that you volunteered to help. I have a feeling if you hadn't been here I probably would've quit my job three times and punched Oliver in the face at least once."

"He'd never let you quit," Sara scoffed. "That place is worse than a tank full of underfed sharks, and he needs you and John there with him too much. After what happened to us on Lian Yu, and even after, trust is the one thing Oliver is always going to put above everything else. And, as strange as it is confiding in complete strangers, your family has given me some much needed perspective."

"They're really good at that," Felicity admitted.

"Besides, what good are friends if you can't team up against the people you care about when they make stupid mistakes," the human joked.

"Amen," Felicity smiled and nodded in agreement.

There was a series of loud and complicated knocking patterns on the front door.

"It's open!" Felicity yelled.

"No it's not!" Thierry yelled from the other side.

Felicity just rolled her eyes and got up from her spot on the couch to let her friends in. "Get both of your asses in here before I change my mind," she joked as she held open the front door so Thierry and Marcel could carry in the large amount of werewolf liquor they had brought with them. "Drinks go in the kitchen, just follow the sound of Lydia giving orders."

"Felicity, right?" Thierry's girlfriend double checked. "Unless you prefer Tina's Ensemble?"

"Oh my god," Felicity felt her face flush scarlet. "You were at the bar. I am so sorry your ears were objected to our drunken singing. Thierry and I were just blowing off steam, and I am now officially mortified."

"Don't be," She smiled. "If it hadn't been for you forcing him up onto that stage we probably wouldn't have met. I'm Katie, by the way. We weren't really formally introduced at the bar." She offered her hand for the alpha to shake.

Felicity quickly shook the woman's hand, but as soon as their hands connected she felt this odd tugging sensation, she couldn't properly describe.

"You're a siphon," Katie realized.

"I'm a whatta?" Felicity questioned, letting go of the woman's hand.

"A siphon," Katie repeated.

"Yeah, I still have no idea what you're talking about," Felicity admitted.

"When you meet witches, do you feel a strange pull?" Katie asked. "It's ok, if you do, it's natural for that to happen, I'm just surprised is all, I've never heard of there being more than one siphon in a family line."

"I am so confused right now," Felicity said shaking her head back and forth as if it would expel the oncoming headache she knew was setting in behind her eyes.

"Why don't you sit, and I'll get the guys to help explain it," Katie offered.

"We should definitely have this conversation in the kitchen," Felicity decided. "Where the booze is." She headed towards the sound of demands being made, and sat down on one of the bar stools, before grabbing the open box of whiskey and liberating one of the bottles for her own personal use. She quickly took the cap off and began chugging like her life depended on it. She wasn't sure how much she had actually drank when Marcel tore it from her grasp, but she had a good feeling it was a fair amount, due to the pleasant buzz that had begun to set in.

"Did something happen I should know about?" Marcel asked, moving the bottle out of the blonde's reach.

"I've had more family secrets revealed to me in the past six weeks than I ever thought we even had," Felicity said, hoping that the words come out with enough articulation to be understood.

"That does not explain why you're chugging whiskey like your life depends on it."

"What is a siphon?" Felicity asked.

"A siphon is nature's way of balancing the power in a witch's line," Thierry answered automatically, going around to the other side of the bar and moving the remaining bottles that were unopened out of the werewolf's reach. Marcel, Katie and Felicity all stared at him like he had grown a second head. "You know how I feel about bigotry in all of its forms," Thierry replied. "I heard about the phenomenon and instead of assuming that the individuals were abominations like everyone else in the magical community, I took some minor blood and tissue samples and did consented research."

"You mean you went on another one of your week long vacations and came back with scientific answers for some magical phenomenon in the world," Marcel translated.

Thierry nodded, "Anyways part of my research showed that siphons actually served a purpose and were not a sign from the devil that a witch was evil. Siphons actually pick up more magical energy than any other creature on the planet, and whenever a witch's line would start to gain too much power, either because of too many offshoots in the family tree of simply existing too long without being in check, a siphon would occur and draw off the excess power in the line and stabilizing it for further generations."

"Better question, why are we talking about them?" Marcel asked.

"Because Felicity is a siphon," Katie answered. "It also explains why the elders keep trying to kill her with cursed objects when she visits the quarter. They think she is an abomination."

"Why can't I just be normal?" Felicity asked with a small whine as she rested her forehead on the edge of the bar. "I can't be a normal child, I have to be a genius child; I can't be a normal heir, I have to be a royal heir; I can't be a beta werewolf I have to be an alpha werewolf; and now instead of a normal witch or druid, I'm a siphon."

"Normalcy is over rated," Thierry tried to tell her. "If you were normal, you probably wouldn't be friends with us."

"Are you asking for me to bite you?" Felicity asked in a dead pan. "Because I can bite you and wait eighteen hours to give you the cure."

"Being a siphon also explains why your blood cures werewolf bites," Thierry added, after he took two steps away from his somewhat drunk friend.

"You two are the older brothers I never wanted," Felicity groaned.

"I'm choosing to take that as a compliment," Marcel told her. "And now, if you really wanted to, you could become a tribrid, you know, part witch, part werewolf, part vampire."

"Because being immortal is the be all end all goal in my life," Felicity replied sarcastically. "And I don't want to drink blood on a daily basis. I'm fine if you guys have to but, it doesn't mean I have to want to do it too."

"And the heightened sense of grief would be unimaginable," Thierry added.

"Grief is already unimaginable; can we please not poke the metaphorical bear anymore than we already have," Felicity pleaded.

"I'm sorry I don't want you to die, is that so wrong!?" Marcel snapped before storming off outside with the mostly full bottle of liquor he had taken from his friend.

Felicity stared at her friend's retreating figure with a questioning look on her face before turning her attention to Thierry and demanding with a glare he explain the strange outburst they had witnessed.

"Things have been really stressful in the quarter lately," Thierry said rubbing the back of his neck and not wanting to look the werewolf in the eye. "The crescents are out of control, and three members of the original family died, so there goes like forty percent of the vampire population, and Marcel still refuses to talk to Klaus about the Mikael thing, and to top everything off he's been guzzling vervain like it's water. It's just one big mess and I think your dad's funeral was the icing on the shit cake."

"The man has been dead for twenty-five years," Felicity pointed out.

"And for twenty-five years we had all held out hope that your father had simply shifted into a full wolf and gotten away, only to live in a den on the out skirts of the preserve," Thierry argued. "Once a year for a decade Marcel would order me to come out here with Deucalion to look for dens hoping to find your dad, and after the tenth year, Deucalion asked us to stop. Not that Marcel actually listened to the man, and for five years I was still out here, because you know how he is about leaving people behind. It's just not in his DNA."

"And then he found me in the quarter counting cards and looking for answers with a large target on my back," Felicity filled in.

"He cares about you," Thierry said. "We both do, and even if you don't want to consider it, Marcel thinks that being like us is better than being forced to say goodbye." Thierry opened another bottle and instead of handing it over he poured two drinks, and then grabbed a normal bottle of booze to pour a third. He handed out the appropriate glasses held his up for a toast. "Here's to you Sammy, because if you're not on the other side standing in this kitchen right now wanting to hit me over the head with my own trumpet, then there really is no hope for the rest of us."

"To Samuel Smoak," Katie said, also holding up her glass.

"To Dad," Felicity agreed, clinking their glasses together, before finishing it in a single gulp. "I still really miss tequila."

"We'll work on it," Thierry told her with a smile. "Maybe the next time you come for a visit we'll have a test batch ready."

"I'll hold you to that," Felicity smirked. She heard more car doors slamming and the sound of Oliver and John arguing about something. She didn't push herself to hear the details, choosing to quiet the voices instead. "I should get that."

Thierry just nodded in understanding and headed after Marcel, with Katie following close behind.

There was a polite knock on the door and she went to open it, only to find that Lydia had beat her to the front. "You are not Allison with the pizza," Lydia said.

"Would you prefer it if I carried food?" Deucalion asked.

Lydia seemed to think the question over for a minute. "Are you going to help clean?"

"Ms. Martin need I remind you I am still blind?"

"Even a blind man can do dishes," Lydia pointed out.

"I will assist with the cleaning," Deucalion reluctantly agreed. "May I please enter the building now?"

"Sure," Lydia nodded, and stepped out of the way so the Demon Wolf could enter the house. "I need to call Allison and see what is taking so long. The food should have been ready by now." Lydia quickly headed back towards the kitchen with her phone in hand.

"I see Ms. Martin has taken the role of hostess like a duck to water," Deucalion noted. "How are you holding up?"

"I'll be ok," Felicity replied with a polite smile. "Honestly, I'm rather glad Lydia is in charge right now, it's one less thing I have to worry about later."

"Did you get the chance to look around? I'm certain your mother had things on the premises she wanted you and your siblings to have when you moved in."

"I'm not staying in Beacon Hills Uncle Duke," Felicity told him. "Starling City is my home now."

"I do believe a fairly strong case can be made for you to move back here, and I'm fairly certain that I am not the only one to have this opinion," the elder alpha argued.

"Derek, Isaac and Cora have packs," Felicity pointed out. "I refuse to rip them away from the people they care about over a silly territorial dispute. They are my siblings and I will always be there for them, but that doesn't mean they have to be in a pack I'm not even sure about starting."

"You have a pack. Mr. Queen, Mr. Diggle, and Ms. Lance are your pack, and the sooner you accept this the sooner you can do what you were meant to."

"We're not a pack. We're a team. A well oiled and maintained team. I do not have a pack, I do not need a pack, and more importantly I do NOT want a pack. I have my friends and I have my family and that is more than enough for me," Felicity continued to argue. "I understand that you're worried about me, and you're worried I'm going to get picked off like some sort of bird on a wire, but I will be fine. I promise. Now, please talk to people, try and convince them you don't want to take over the world anymore, and maybe just maybe you'll find that some of these people miss Dad just as much as you do."

"I find it highly unlikely-" Deucalion began.

"Then get drunk on Marcel's booze," Felicity interrupted, while pushing/leading him towards the kitchen where she was sure, someone would hand him a bottle of wolfhound to get him started, and true to her expectations, Katie grabbed a bottle and began talking to her uncle. She let out a heavy sigh and then went back to the living room where she could hear John and Sara talking and headed over to join them.

"You ok?" John asked.

"Maybe," Felicity guessed. "My father wanted an Irish wake, so that's what he's getting assuming we all live through the next few hours."

"I thought you said You spreading ashes on top of ashes?" Diggle asked.

"That was the original plan," Felicity admitted. "But Isaac had an idea, and to be honest, I liked the sound of it a lot better. The last thing I want to see is that husk of a broken home."

"You're going to be ok," Sara told her.

"Yeah, well right now I would settle for a decent night's sleep and a good meal," the alpha said. "Where's Oliver?"

* * *

"I would go back inside if I were you," Marcel said, not even looking away from the tree he had been staring at for the past half hour.

Oliver had been looking around the house ever since he had gotten there. He methodically went from room to room, trying to figure out why this place felt so different, so alive, as opposed to the other places he had been in the town or even outside of the town. There was something about this place that drew him in, and he was willing to bet some of the people here knew what that was, none more so than the man he had seen with Felicity at the funeral. "Just wanted a minute with my thoughts," Oliver replied.

"That's a dangerous thing to be doing on the edge of these woods," Marcel told him. "There are stories about malevolent spirits that roam this forest, they draw in souls connected to darkness and feed off of their life force, getting stronger while their prey is weakened to death."

"Do you believe them, the stories?" Oliver asked, taking a few steps closer trying to figure out what the other man was starring at so intently.

"Didn't use to," Marcel admitted. "Now I'm not so sure anymore. Something about this place has changed since I last visited. There is something heavy and unnatural, almost like a-"

"A darkness?" Oliver guessed.

"Yeah," the vampire admitted. "You feel it too?"

"I'm not sure what it is," Oliver answered. "It just raises all of the hairs on the back of neck."

"Good. You should listen to it, that part of you that is afraid."

"Why?"

"Do you care about Felicity?" Marcel asked changing the subject. "She's your friend?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't care," the blonde replied.

"Good. Make sure she doesn't get sucked in. She needs to go back to Starling City."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means if I had to choose between this town and Hell, I'd rent this place out," Marcel told him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I quoted the Riddick movies. I don't own them either. I just really like David Twohy.


	7. What Happens in Russia...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Another deadline met. This takes place exclusively during Arrow 2x6. I own nothing. And about half of the dialogue is direct from the episode, but I did make some minor changes.
> 
> Italics are either flash backs or Felicity using her super hearing.

"I really don't see why this is necessary," Felicity complained. "I don't like heights, and heights don't like me. I'm 5'4" and 100lbs, and that bar you want me to move is more than half my weight. I couldn't even move it standing upright, and you want me to move it while I'm falling through the air!"

"Would you like me to demonstrate?" Deucalion asked.

"No, I understand what you want me to do," Felicity replied. "I've seen Oliver and Sara both go up and down one hundred times, I am simply telling you that it is physically impossible for me to do."

"Would it help if it were lower to the ground?" Deucalion asked.

"Honestly, YES!"

"Fine," Deucalion nodded. He jumped up the ten feet in the air to reach the bar and with every loud clank he slowly worked his way down to Felicity's level. He stopped just over a foot and a half above her head. "This, right here is your low setting. Seven feet, if you were to go any lower you would most likely break a bone, and while it wouldn't hurt for long, it would at least make you limp for half an hour. Now, what I want you to practice is being able to lift yourself up and then swinging down."

"But you just said I would break a bone if I went any lower."

"That's what this is for," he said, lifting two large pieces of metal the size of his hands. "This is a lock for the salmon ladder. It's going to keep the bar stationary while you practice. No going up and no going down. Think of it like gymnastics, in order to work your way up onto the high bar, you have to know how to move on the low bar. So, go on, pull yourself up." He carefully reached up and put the two locks in place, and motioned for her to step forward.

She grabbed the bar and slowly began to pull herself upwards until her chin was above the bar. "So now what?" She ground out.

"You hold until your arms fall off," he answered nonchalantly. "Or you can tuck your legs in and you practice swinging back and forth until you have enough momentum to swing around and hold yourself up at the waist. Either exercise builds up arm strength and upper body strength."

"Can't I just try and use my werewolf strength to do that?"

"Ms. Smoak, if you constantly used your abilities for everything what would that accomplish?" Deucalion asked.

"Absolutely nothing," she grumbled because she had already been told the answer to this question repeatedly.

"Precisely," he agreed. "In order to accomplish something you have to work for it, and if you don't put in the work, you don't advance. There will be times when you can't rely on your abilities to save you, like during a lunar eclipse, which is a continually recurring event. Yes, being what we are makes us stronger and faster, but it will never make us better unless we actually push ourselves to be better. This is how you push yourself. It doesn't matter where you start, as long as you keep practicing."

"So, what? Like twenty minutes three times a week?" She guessed.

"More like an hour every day."

"Are you insane?!" Felicity asked, letting go of the bar and surprisingly landing on her feet. "I have a very demanding job, I work almost eighty hours a week and I'm extremely fortunate if I get four hours of sleep a night. I don't have time to practice for an hour every day! Oliver practically sleeps here, I'm lucky if I'm alone down here for twenty minutes. What's going to happen if while I'm practicing John decides to restock the medical supplies, or Oliver decides to beat the crap out of a practice dummy? I'm not even supposed to tell people about this equipment much less actually train on it."

"You continue to practice. It doesn't have to be a solid hour, five minutes during lunch, or ten minutes after everyone leaves, start in small increments multiple times a day and as you continue you'll build up your endurance."

"Is this how you trained your pack?" Felicity asked.

"No," he admitted.

"So then why am I training like this?"

"Because it's how you would've been trained if your father was still alive. It's how your mother wanted you to be trained, and the one thing I will not do is disrespect the wishes of the dead."

Felicity grumbled something about demanding unreasonable requests to people new to their positions.

"Have you confided in Mr. Queen yet?" Deucalion asked, sensing he needed to change the topic. "It's been almost three weeks since your first turn; eventually you will reach the point where your relationship will crumble if he doesn't find out what you are from you."

"I can't just tell Oliver that I'm an alpha werewolf," the blonde reasoned, as she jumped up grabbing the bar. "I may have, by some miracle, made it through my first full moon without killing anyone, but that doesn't mean that I'm ready to face the rest of the world as anyone other than Felicity Smoak, computer tech." She was hanging now, knowing that if she didn't at least try and appease her uncle he would spend more time with her until she did as he instructed.

"But you aren't," her mentor argued. "You have always been Felicity Hale, firstborn daughter of Talia Hale and Martin Smoak, rightful member of the Hale Pack and daughter of a renowned Emissary, and heir to both the Alpha line and the Hale line."

"But I haven't," Felicity disputed. "I was born a human to a second. Something you yourself told me that my mother's colleagues frowned upon, that they would've let Isaiah bite me without consent. Suddenly being a wolf doesn't change anything."

"It proves that your father was murdered, and that your grandfather had no right to dispute your parent's bond. It proves that you are your mother's daughter."

"So what, my siblings are illegitimate? Laura didn't properly earn her place as alpha? All you've really told me is that my entire life was a lie, a lie I was perfectly happy believing. In the past month, you've told me my uncle is an undead serial killer, my siblings had lied to me my entire life, my mother was murdered because of a psycho path hell bent on killing every single member of my family, and my grandfather hated me so much that he sabotaged my parent's marriage and most likely killed my father in cold blood. I hate to break it to you, but I was happy thinking I was human. I was happy believing the lies."

"If you were happy believing the lies then you would've tried harder to keep in contact with Derek after your mother's death," Deucalion stated. "You would've accepted your 18th birthday present for what it was and not had your younger sister lock it away in a vault you didn't have access to at the time."

"You just want me to tell Oliver so I can test your stupid theory about him being my Lieutenant," the blonde grumbled.

"It's not a theory if it's true Ms. Smoak."

"Uncle Duke, there is only so many times that I can repeat the same sentence at a normal volume without resorting to more extreme measures, so please do pay attention this time," Felicity began. "I am NOT forming a pack."

"So if I told you that Alpha McCall had inquired about formally recruiting Isaac-"

Felicity quickly cut her uncle off with an uncontrolled and automatic growl of "my cub."

"You should also continue to work on your ability to lie," Deucalion advised with a knowing but kind smile on his face, much like a parent trying to teach a lesson to their child.

"I'll work on it," the younger alpha agreed with a tired sigh before dropping back down to the ground again.

* * *

 

"Isaac, it's Felicity, please call me back when you get this; you haven't called me in over a week and I'm a little worried. Derek assures me you're alive, but for all I know you could be in another coma," Felicity said into the phone as she rode the elevator up to Oliver's office. "I love you. Please be careful." She hung up the phone and began sliding it back into her pocket, when it chimed signaling she had another alert. After a few quick swipes she pulled up the security feeds from the club and noticed Roy had placed another arrow in the wall signaling he wanted another meet. "Well, at least one person is prompt at returning messages." She put her phone away and quickly thought back to the last two weeks and how they had drastically changed a huge portion of her life.

_"Promise me you will be careful," Felicity told her siblings with a small scowl. They were all gathered outside of the hotel and Sara was waiting for the other blonde by her car, the boys and Deucalion had opted on leaving a few minutes earlier. "I mean it. I might not be able to stop you from doing stupid things, but I will guilt you all into precautionary measures to ensure your own survival."_

_"We'll be fine Lis," Derek assured her with a teasing groan._

_"And Scott," Felicity said turning to the other Alpha. "If they step out of line at all, feel free to call me and I will ground them faster than you can even ask."_

_"I'm 22 years old," Derek objected with a scoff._

_"And I am still older than you," Felicity reminded him. "Rank has nothing to do with it. I'm older, and I know all of the family account information."_

_Scott just smiled happily and chuckled at the older beta's discomfort. He handed her a small tin of cookies. "My mom made those for you guys for your trip back, and to apologize for my Dad's behavior."_

_Felicity just rolled her eyes good naturedly. "No one holds your Mom responsible, if anything she went out of her way to help, speaking of," Felicity began searching her bag and pulled out three envelopes and handed them to him. "These are for you and your pack. One is for your Mom, for helping our so much, make sure she actually uses it, not lets it sit around. The second one is for access to the servers, that way you guys have access to all of the research you need, plus if you need assistance you can send out a SOS, and backup will be here in a matter of hours. And the third is an emergency stipend along with my contact info. Use it for whatever you think you guys need: Equipment, food, bail, anything at all."_

_Scott hesitantly opened one of the envelopes with his name on it and his eyes looked like they were going to bug out of his skull. "I, I can't take this," he stammered trying to give her the envelope back._

_"You can and you will," Felicity told him. "Most of it is yours by right from the last true Alpha, willed to his successor i.e. you, and I added some of mine because it's the only way I can think how to help. I'm not much older than you in terms of experience, and I don't have a pack backing me up. Giving you and your pack this helps me feel like I'm contributing. You gave me back my family, Scott. Let me repay you for that kindness."_

_"Thank you," Scott told her, shaking her hand._

_Felicity just nodded and smiled, before turning back to her younger siblings. She turned specifically to Cora, "You sure you want to stay in Buenos Aires?" She asked. "I can't convince you to move closer?"_

_"I like it there," Cora told her. "Besides, it's not like I'm not going to visit and call, and if you think I'm not coming back for Christmas and eating all of Aunt Clara's famous pecan pie, you're delusional."_

_"I'll split it with you," Felicity compromised with a teary smile. Cora pulled her into a tight hug and squeezed as hard as she could. "I'm going to miss you."_

_"I'll miss you too," Cora assured her. "If you need any tips or pointers, I'm here, especially if you full shift. These two goofs haven't figured it out yet."_

_"And what makes you think I will?" Felicity asked._

_"Let's chalk it up to a good feeling, but I have faith you'll figure it out before Derek does," Cora whispered in her sister's ear. "Love you."_

_"Love you too," Felicity told her before another tight squeeze and letting go. She shifted her attention towards Derek who was pretending to be ignoring her. "Alright, come here before I change my mind."_

_"Who me?" Derek inquired with a smirk._

_"Yes you," She scoffed, and pulling him into a hug. "Promise me you'll look out for them, ok?"_

_"I'm not the alpha Lis," he told her._

_"You're the oldest, that makes you a different kind of alpha," She assured him. "What you lack in power you make up for in experience."_

_Derek rolled his eyes, "Quoting Mom now?"_

_"You know it," she smiled. "And promise you won't put me on radio silence again; I mean it Der. I'm not helpless."_

_"I know," he replied. "I promise to pick up the phone on a regular and more frequent basis."_

_"And not get almost killed," she added._

_"And limit my near death experiences, or if they do persist not mention them," he joked._

_"Ass," She said pulling away and punching him in the shoulder._

_"Hey, you're stronger than me, that hurts now," he laughed._

_"Of course it does you're a wimp," she replied haughtily before stepping away. "I love you, moron."_

_"I love you too, tech junkie," he told her sincerely. "Although if you could stop sending me copies of my weekly electronic footprint I would really appreciate it."_

_"I'll think about it," she teased. Finally, she shifted her attention to the newest member of the Hale clan and despite his apparent awkwardness at the amount of familial PDA, he really had made vast improvements over the past four days. "Can I get a hug?"_

_Isaac quickly scooped her smaller body into his arms and squeezed. He mumbled something in response to her question, but Felicity was too surprised and losing too much oxygen to register what it was._

_"Isaac, air," She gasped._

_The younger beta quickly put her back down on the ground and looked very sheepish after he let her go._

_"It's ok cub," she told him. "You just caught me by surprise."_

_"You'll come back right? To Beacon Hills?" Isaac double checked. The implied 'me' went unspoken, even if the other wolves did realize what the teenager meant._

_"Yes," Felicity assured the teen. "And even if I don't come back that often, you can visit whenever you feel like it, and I'm going call and email every week. Soon, you're going to be so sick of me, you wonder why you even asked me to keep in touch."_

_Isaac pursed his lips together to keep from what Felicity could clearly identify as a pout. She wasn't entirely sure when this had happened, when her brother's former beta had suddenly become her beta, but she knew somehow over the course of the past four days Isaac's loyalty had shifted. The one thought that was going through her head the most was that she didn't deserve this, she had already failed this kid once, and now he was looking at her like she was holding the world up, but she squashed those thoughts back down as much as she could. Her siblings needed her, and Isaac was included in that grouping now._

_"Be safe, go to school, try and have fun like a normal teenager," she told him seriously. "But not too much fun," she added hastily._

_Isaac nodded resolutely, "I'll be good."_

_"I know you will," She smiled, this time giving him an actual hug as opposed to nearly being strangled. "Bye cub, love you." She knew the teen wasn't ready to reply yet, but she felt him nod his head again and she took the sign for what it was._

"How is this my life," she wondered aloud to the empty elevator before it reached her destination. She quickly stepped off of the elevator and headed to Oliver's office, only to find him in a heated discussion with Isabel Rochev.

"You were supposed to sign this report at last night's board meeting," Isabel told him. "You know why you didn't?"

"Probably because I didn't attend last night's board meeting," Oliver replied.

"Where were you?"

"I have other interests outside of this company," Oliver said.

"I don't." Isabel pointed out.

Oh boy, Felicity thought to herself before attempting to interrupt. "Mr. Queen?"

"I thought you were serious when you said we were partners," Rochev argued.

"Isabel, I missed one meeting," Oliver tried to defend himself.

"This week," the other woman countered. "Last week it was two meetings, and the week before that you were out of town for a week because of a personal matter."

Felicity knew what Isabel's inflection meant she said the words 'personal matter' along with everyone else in the office who continued to gossip about the absence of their CEO and his secretary. The fact the entire company and every board member believed she was sleeping with Oliver was not lost on her, in fact it made her somewhat more of a social pariah at outside work functions, and while many times her wolf wanted nothing more than to yell and roar at her coworkers to the point they wet themselves in fear, or in Isabel Rochev's case tear the woman's throat out and use it as a toy, she had settled for smirking at the other CEO's very awkward hobbling with the removable soft shell cast around her ankle.

It was true that she hadn't wanted to give Rochev vampire blood for the supernaturally inflicted injury, but the rational human side of her knew it was wrong to keep the woman in severe amounts of pain. The two halves of Felicity's personality had come to a rather enjoyable compromise; she would sneak the smallest amount of vampire blood in Rochev's coffee, after siphoning some of the magic out so as to not completely heal the other woman's leg, relieving a majority of Felicity's human guilt and satisfying her wolf's need for vengeance. Thierry had told her in no uncertain terms that using his blood would only be a waste of a perfectly good medical miracle if she gave it to the bitch and Katie and Marcel had seconded the opinion, but Felicity knew her parents and her aunt and uncle would have scolded her until she did the right thing.

"Mr. Queen," Felicity tried again to politely get Oliver's attention, to which Oliver simply held up one finger in her direction saying he needed a minute.

"Company wide revenue is at double digits since you and I took over," Oliver began.

"Oliver." Felicity ordered using the tiniest bit of her power without flashing her eyes, but even if it did happen on accident she was wearing multiple cloaking charms. Oliver sighed and Isabel turned around as if to snap at the other woman, but Felicity quickly countered the impending move by cutting Isabel off. "I'm sorry to interrupt your," she started waving her hands in a clawing motion, which probably would have been more effective with her actual claws, "hegehh, umm, I need to talk to you about your plans for this evening with Mr. Harper."

Isabel turned back around to face Oliver obviously waiting for her business partner to explain himself, but Oliver simply got out of his office chair and headed for the door.

"You'll have to excuse me," he said politely.

"We have work to do," Isabel pointed out. "It's important."

"So are my evening plans. I'm sorry," Oliver told Isabel. Then he exited the office and headed to the elevator with Felicity in tow. "We are going to have to work on your excuses," he told the other blonde quietly.

"You're right," Felicity agreed, knowing that Deucalion had told her pretty much the exact same thing yesterday morning during training.

* * *

 

Felicity and Oliver were watching the news about people protesting the particle accelerator in Central City when John finally returned from the field, or rather Oliver was watching the news while Felicity wondered how the world respond to learning about the existence of werewolves from a scientific standpoint, since now most people believed the universe was created by colliding two atoms instead of intervention via the gods. She was still having trouble reconciling her scientific beliefs and upbringing with that of her new found family heritage, and if the frequency of her uncle's tension headaches during training were any indication, most werewolves favored magic over science and didn't like to over think the areas where they overlapped.

"Where did you go?" Oliver wondered out loud when John descended the stairs to the lair. Felicity inhaled and tried to distinguish the different scents in the room so she could attempt to identify John's current thoughts and emotions via chemo signals, but so far the only emotion she could properly identify on anyone was fear, and John did not smell afraid.

"Is everything ok?" Oliver continued.

"Yeah," John answered simply, pulling out large black case from underneath one of the tables. "I just need a few personal days."

"What's going on?" Oliver asked.

"I have to help a friend."

There was a new scent in the air now, it was heavier than fear, but it wasn't as pungent. Fear was almost acrid and left a taste in your mouth, but this scent just made her want to give John a hug, which would probably not be a good idea, since she was fairly certain there were guns in the case he had set on the table.

"Who?" The archer questioned.

"Lyla Michaels," Digg said.

"It's his spy girlfriend that works for ARGUS," Felicity told Oliver, while her mind supplied her with a more accurate term mate.

"She went to Russia looking for Deadshot," Digg explained. "For me. Now she's missing."

Oliver nodded in understanding, "Felicity, I think it's time we visited our Queen Consolidated subsidiary in Moscow."

"Yeah," Felicity agreed whole heartedly.

"Oliver what are you doing?" John asked his friend.

"Just need to help a friend," Oliver answered simply.

"I can't ask you to do that," John told him.

"You didn't." The blonde archer pointed out.

* * *

 

"I must advise against this course of action," Deucalion began from the front passenger seat of Felicity's newly rescued Camaro.

"I'm going to Moscow," Felicity told him. "I have already done the responsible thing and informed Olga Knyazev that I was going to be in town and that I was here to help a friend with some legal issues and do some work for Queen Consolidated. She is requesting that I stay in the fortress of a mansion she shares with her brother, I am to have dinner with them to discuss possibilities of renewing the truce, and I am not to go more than thirty feet away from one of her trusted body guards/spies, who are going to report back my every move, action, and syllable that exits my mouth."

"The Knyazev family are formidable opponents and have more resources and man power than the Argent Family and Calaveras Family combined, you would do well not to underestimate them."

"You make it sound as if I'm going to war with them," the younger alpha said.

"It's worse than that, you're wanting to work with them and expecting them not to double cross you."

"If one of your extended pack members was in prison illegally being held, what would you do?" Felicity asked.

"I would let them rot there for being incompetent and getting caught, and if they broke out and accomplished their task before returning to me I would welcome them back, while lightly scolding them for not completing it in a timelier manner," he answered easily.

"It's those types of answers that make me question your commitment to your rehabilitation," his niece told him.

"Would you prefer it if I lied to you?" he honestly wondered.

"I just," Felicity began, trying to organize her thoughts as they pulled into the private airport. "I wish you would have trusted me to help you since the beginning."

"You have always had my trust Ms. Smoak, but like any good parent I will always put your safety before my own, even at the cost of my own wants."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe we needed you after Mom died?"

"I was so far gone when the fire happened the only thing I would've done is gotten you and your siblings killed as well," Deucalion answered. "It's why I will never completely regret my actions. You are alive."

"What good is life when the people you care about aren't able to share it with you." Felicity pointed out as she pulled her car to a stop next to Oliver's town car. She quickly got out of the driver's seat and pulled her bag from the back before she walked over to where her friends were waiting for her.

"You ok?" John asked.

"Yeah," Felicity answered. "I'm fine. Uncle Duke just wanted to see me off. He's worried about me travelling so far so soon after the surgery."

"Is he ok to be driving?" Oliver asked. "With his eye sight being what it is?"

"He actually took his driving and vision test yesterday; according to both of the test administrators he passed with flying colors."

"You're not letting him drive your car, are you," Oliver guessed.

"That car is my baby. He can't have it, not even for a couple of days."

Oliver smiled, while John chuckled at their friend's protective nature, "Did you at least call him a cab?"

"Yep, it's waiting at the entrance, so as soon as we've taken off and he stops sulking, he's all set."

They were about to head to the door of the jet when another town car pulled up next to Oliver's.

"Are we forgetting something?" John asked.

Isabel Rochev stepped out of the back passenger seat when the vehicle came to a complete stop, "Where do you think you are going?"

"Tahiti," Felicity answered quickly.

"That's funny, the flight manifest says you are going to Moscow," the other woman replied.

"Well, we're going to stop by there, you know, after Tahiti," she corrected.

Rochev turned her attention to Oliver, "What kind of partner decides to interact with our overseas holding behind the other's back."

"It was an oversight," Oliver admitted.

"Oh. Well, lucky for our partnership I'm a fast packer." Isabel passed the group and headed into the plane, followed by a reluctant Felicity.

"Oliver, her tagging along does not help matters any," John pointed out.

"I will take care of her. John, we are going to bring Lyla back, wherever she is," Oliver promised.

"Mr. Queen!" Deucalion called out, and headed over. "I believe Felicity left this in the car by mistake." He handed Oliver a box with a strange triangular symbol on it. "Could you make sure she gets it after take off."

"Why after?" Oliver questioned, carefully accepting the box.

"She will attempt to throw it at my head if you're still on the ground."

* * *

 

Felicity was waiting patiently in the Customs line behind John and Oliver when she spotted who she assumed was her security escort, considering instead of the normal sign with someone's name there were Deucalion's pack symbol next to her mother's, milling about in front of the other driver's with signs, only instead of crisp black suits and ties, they were wearing black button ups and folded leather jackets over their arms with their hunting ranks and trophies proudly displayed. She supposed Olga Knyazev meant it as an intimidation tactic or even a way to gauge Felicity's rationale in having member's openly wear the trophies of the creatures they had successfully killed, but Felicity had to admit it looked more silly than anything. What type of grown man would wear a prominent fang choker and several bangles that looked to be made of claws?

"I've arranged a meeting with the chief operating officer of our Moscow subsidiaries at ten am," Isabel explained to Oliver. "Try your hardest not to miss this one."

Felicity and John were still waiting in line to be cleared to officially enter the country, and even thought the airport was loud and crowded and Rochev was trying to be at least a little discreet, Felicity could make out their conversation without even really trying to.

_"You know I'm not this person that you seem to think I am," Oliver pointed out._

_"That depends."_

_"On what?"_

_"On if I think you used the corporate jet for a weekend of fun with your assistant," Isabel replied._

_"Excuse me?"_

_"A blonde IT girl all of a sudden gets promoted to be the assistant to the CEO. There are only two ways that happens, one is nepotism and she doesn't look like your cousin."_

_"That is absolutely not happening," Oliver told her, looking back momentarily almost as if to check Felicity wasn't eavesdropping._

_"What were her qualifications, aside from an abundance of short skirts."_

Felicity broke the pen she was writing with at that point, wanting nothing more to either take back her earlier generosity with Thierry's blood or break the woman's leg with her own newly discovered magic.

_"Her skirts aren't that short," Oliver attempted to defend his friend and failed, seeing as Rochev had turned her back and walked away before Oliver could even formulate a reply to her accusation._

Felicity and John got their passports stamped right at the same moment and headed to where Oliver was waiting.

"What was that about?" Felicity asked.

"Nothing," Oliver answered. "Everything with Knyazev is set."

"You have friends in the Russian Mafia, color me not at all surprised," Felicity noted.

"You're going straight to the hotel in a cab," the older blonde answered.

"No," Felicity corrected. "1. You are not leaving me with her, and 2. I'm not going to the hotel, because I am not staying in the hotel. I'm staying with family friends, which I told you on the jet. Robot Rochev is not my responsibility."

"Digg and I need to get a drink and see if Anatoly is willing to help us," Oliver argued, walking away from the agitated alpha before she could come up with a response.

"And I don't need a drink?" She grumbled before heading over to the hunters. "You two must be Ms. Olga Knyazev's people."

"Alpha Hale?" the one on the left questioned.

"Let me guess, you were expecting someone taller and more rough around the edges." Felicity nodded understanding their confusion.

"I'm supposed to ask for credentials ma'am," the one on the right said. Felicity flashed her eyes at both men and they nodded. "Welcome to Moscow Alpha Hale."

"Please, call me Felicity," the blonde smiled. "I don't like using my title outside of formal events."

"It would be improper to use your first name, current truce terms dictate all alphas in good standing be referred to by their title along with any accompanying betas, Ma'am," the one on the left told her.

"Well, since I left my betas at home and I haven't been an alpha long enough to have a standing with most of the families, why don't we compromise and go with Ms. Smoak," the alpha smiled politely. "And if I could just get your names, we can all be on our way."

"Mikhail," the one on the right answered promptly.

"Pyotr, Ma'am." The left one said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," Felicity answered honestly. "Mostly because I am slightly mad at two of my compatriots, but since they ditched me to get liquor, I shall respond with better liquor in kind, preferably before Robot Rochev figures out I'm not following her to the hotel."

The two Russians stared at the alpha like they weren't sure what was going on, or even why the alpha was telling them this.

"It's a joke," Felicity sighed. "I rely on my sense of humor in tense situations, also I really don't want Isabel Rochev to follow me, so let's go. I'm sure Ms. Knyazev would love to have me under surveillance as soon as possible, and right now she is more preferable than my other alternative."

"Lady in fur hat is Rochev, yes?" Mikhail asked. "She is headed here."

Felicity closed her eyes and murmured 'why me' under her breath before turning around to face the angry higher up.

"What are you doing?" Isabel demanded. "Why are you talking to these people?"

"Generally it is polite to get the names of the people who are picking you up and driving you somewhere," Felicity began. "Especially if it's cold out and more than twenty minutes away. Now, if you will please excuse me, I have important dinner plans I can't afford to miss."

"Plans with Oliver?" Rochev guessed.

"No. I'm having dinner with a family friend, and I would like to be able to get some work done before the meeting tomorrow morning. So, if you'll excuse me I'd like to leave now and I'll see you and Oliver and John in the hotel lobby at 9am."

Rochev seemed to look at the two large Russians for a moment and then back at Felicity and then back at the Russians. "What exactly are you playing at?"

"Ms. Knyazev sent us to pick up Ms. Smoak from the airport," Pyotr answered.

"And why would this Ms. Knyazev want to have dinner with you?" Isabel turned to the other woman.

"She knew my parents," Felicity answered. "Oliver said we were going to Moscow so I called to let her know I would be in town. She requested we have dinner."

"Why?" the woman demanded, but Felicity just smiled and chose not to respond, so Rochev turned back to the Russians, "Why?"

I will not rip her throat out. I will not rip her throat out. I will not rip her throat out, Felicity continued to repeat to herself, and she could tell from the exasperated expression on the two men's faces they were thinking very similar things.

"A good soldier follows orders, not questions them," Pyotr replied with a smirk. "You are not soldier, you are pest. Move or be crushed."

Felicity fought the manic grin down and managed to hold a stoic expression on her face while Rochev looked like she might kill Pyotr.

Mikhail pulled his buzzing phone out of his jacket pocket and answered it, murmuring in quiet Russian, before leaning over to his associate and telling him something. Pyotr nodded in understanding, while still holding the human woman's glare.

"Car this way Ms. Smoak," Mikhail said, directing her towards their vehicle.

Felicity nodded in understanding, not wanting to interrupt of the battle of wills going on, despite wanting to be a spectator, and followed the Russian.

"She not yours?" Mikhail double checked.

"No," Felicity confirmed. "Not even in a million years."

"Pyotr can shoot?"

"I defer to Ms. Knyazev," Felicity answered smartly. "But happy to watch if Pyotr does."

"You not bad, for wolf," Mikhail chuckled.

"Thank you."

* * *

 

"Now that is a lot of drugs," Felicity said, starring at the offensive smelling bag in shock and wanting desperately to burn it. It smelt of concentrated wolfsbane, the kind some wolves used to get high, and even being near the blue pills was entirely too tempting and horrifying.

"Courtesy of Knyazev," Diggle supplied. "I have enough weight to land me in the Koshmar."

Felicity took a breath and thought about John and the mission, getting her mind off of the pills, then went over to grab a coat off the table. "You need to be wearing this when they process you. Guards will take it but that's the point." She handed the coat to John so he could put it on and grabbed her tablet pulling up her photos. "This is Knyazev's man inside the prison, a guard."

"He'll know where in the gulag Lyla is being held," Oliver added.

"When all Hell breaks loose," the werewolf continued, pulling up the plan and schematics, "you need to meet us at the rendezvous point with Lyla or-"

"Or I am a permanent Russian," John finished.

Felicity put her tablet down, "Just thinking out loud, but are we sure this is the best plan we can come up with? I know Lyla is your friend but-"

"Felicity," John interrupted politely. "Lyla isn't my friend; she was my wife."

Mate Felicity's wolf corrected again with a small whimper, but Felicity held it back. "Explain that sentence."

"Lyla and I met back in the Army in Afghanistan, but we didn't stay married long once we got stateside," John admitted with a heavy sigh. "Couldn't figure out a way to stay married without a war to fight, so she joined ARGUS and I circled back for my third tour. I can't leave here without her Felicity, I just can't."

Felicity's wolf was crying at her human pack member's admission, and she was having an even harder time reigning it in than normal, mostly because both sides of her were in agreement and wanted to comfort her friend. It reminded her of when she used to ask her mother about her Dad.

Oliver's alarm on his phone went off and pulled Felicity out of her reverie.

"Two-minute warning," Oliver said, holding out his hand for john to shake in case the plan went south.

"Good luck John," Felicity smiled sadly, before wrapping a scarf around his neck and placing a kiss on his check, not even bothering to try and reign in the scent her wolf was emitting, so that any other wolves would know who John was.

The older human grabbed the bag of drugs off the table and headed out of the room, while Oliver and Felicity waited and looked out the window silently for Anatoly to signal the first part of the plan had gone smoothly.

They didn't have long to wait before Oliver's phone went off again and he answered the call.

"They have him," the person on the other end of the line said.

Oliver nodded in confirmation before turning to the alpha, "Clock's running."

* * *

 

To say the man who was helping them was surprised when Felicity showed up with Pyotr and Mikhail with her at the request/demand of Olga was an understatement. He looked like someone had just told him the Russians had faked their version of the moon landing, his mouth clearly wanting to hang open despite the refusal of his lips to part before glancing back and forth between Oliver and Felicity. Oliver had a tenser expression on his face as if to question why the two men were here, only knowing that he couldn't, because Felicity had already explained their presence, and despite her reluctance to involve the two guards, it was obvious they didn't trust Oliver with the wellbeing of their charge.

"Do you think Digg's ok?" Felicity asked meekly, moving her gaze from her phone to her friend, and internally being torn between going on a murderous rampage to get both Digg and Lyla out and needing a hug and reassurance. The murderous rampage was more appealing to her wolf, but she could also feel Anatoly's gaze on her and knew he would be ready if she even tried to deviate or take things into her own hands, probably with a wolfs bane bullet. She had a feeling that this Anatoly Knyazev was Olga's older brother, who she had mentioned during dinner the previous night, and not her second cousin.

"I think he's doing the same as he was when you asked five minutes ago." Oliver placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt at easing her worries.

"They're coming," Anatoly said.

The Bratstvo member took a few steps towards the moving vehicles and said something else Felicity couldn't catch, even with her heightened hearing, while Mikhail and Pyotr stood a little closer to her in case things went south.

Anatoly held out what was clearly a cash stuffed envelope to the men with guns who had stepped out of the car, but they made no move to accept it, even after Anatoly said something to them in his native tongue in what sounded like a pleasant voice.

She saw Mikhail and Pyotr begin to reach for their weapons on their belts, but Oliver simply started walking towards the man they were supposed to be making a deal with, and told him something in Russian that made the stranger reconsider.

The Russian official took the money and his goons put their guns down, while Oliver and Anatoly headed back to the cars.

"What did you say?" Felicity asked.

"Please," Oliver said, winking cheekily.

* * *

 

"We should go without him," Mikhail said as they walked down the hall to Oliver's room.

"And what's going to happen if we show up without Oliver?" Felicity asked him, despite already knowing the answer herself. "Anatoly will shoot me, John will rot in the gulag, and you and Pyotr will probably die too."

"I survive," Pyotr argued.

Felicity stopped and stared skeptically at the two guards, "You don't like Oliver, do you?"

"Oliver Queen is Bratstvo Captain," Mikhail pointed out. "We have understanding, not friendship."

"And yet you're protecting me," Felicity said. "A wolf."

"Your loyalty earns protection," Mikhail explained. "You save your own, not get others do dirty work. Rare quality. Good quality, even in wolves."

Felicity nodded in understanding, but didn't say anything further, silenced by the weight of her earlier mistakes. The alpha chose to continue to Oliver's room in silence and knocked on the door, only to have Oliver open it, before she removed her hand. "Hi," she greeted.

"Hi," Oliver replied.

"It's time. Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," Oliver began, only to be interrupted by Isabel walking in front of him to exit the room.

"I think she can take the night off," Isabel said, looking back at Oliver for a second. "Don't you?"

Felicity looked down at the ground for a second, practically strangling her wolf and its want to do something violent and rash.

"Felicity-" Oliver tried again.

"What happens in Russia, stays in Russia," Felicity said, turning around and heading back down the hallway. "Even when it makes no sense what so ever." She didn't check to see if the guys were behind her as she headed back downstairs.

* * *

 

Everyone in the truck was sitting in a tense and uncomfortable silence. Felicity was sitting in the front passenger side, while Oliver was being squished on the driver's side bench seat between Mikhail and Pyotr. The two Russians seemed happy restricting Oliver's personal space and making him increasingly uncomfortable, and every time her tried to go to the other bench they held him down and squished him more.

Felicity wasn't sure how long they had been sitting outside, or even how much longer they were going to have to continue to sit there, but eventually she decided she needed to say something before she exploded and shifted. "What were you thinking?!"

"What?" Oliver questioned.

"Almost sixty-four million women over the age of consent in Russia and you sleep with her," the alpha spat out.

"So we're not doing the whatever happens in Russia stays in Russia?" Oliver asked.

"We're still in Russia," Felicity said.

Anatoly opened the driver's side door and quickly got in to start the truck. "There is nothing money cannot buy in this country," Anatoly said.

* * *

 

"Diggle should be heading out with Lyla in two minutes," Oliver said.

"Breaking out of prison is harder than it looks," Anatoly pointed out to the younger man. "You of all people should know that." He then put the truck out of park and headed up the road.

"Got it," Felicity said after typing a few commands into her laptop. "I shut down the phones the guards can't call for help."

"If your friend and that woman are not here by now, they will not be here at all," Anatoly replied.

"I'm going to make sure they aren't held up," Oliver said getting out of the tight seat, only this time with no force holding him back. He quickly went out the back hatch and around the corner.

"Oliver doesn't know," Anatoly guessed. "What you are? What you do?"

"He doesn't," Felicity confirmed. "I'd like it to stay that way."

"Is he pack?"

"I don't have a pack," Felicity said, "and I have no intention of starting one."

"Your lying needs work Alpha Hale," Anatoly told her.

There was a loud explosion followed closely by the sounds of gunshots. After a minute of watching out the back door there were four figures rushing towards them and Pyotr and Mikhail quickly helped them all in the truck before Anatoly let his foot off the brakes and began moving back down the road.

After several minutes of driving with no one following them Anatoly announced the all clear.

"Stop the truck," John said before turning to the unexpected passenger. "Get out." When the man didn't move John repeated the order louder. "Get Out."

Lawton opened the side door and hopped out followed closely by John, who had a gun pointed at him. John led Lawton out in front of the truck, but when his hands started to shake with gun held in front of him Lawton smirked.

"That's the thing about honor John," Deadshot said. "You can't turn it on and off." The sniper started to turn around and walk away, but stopped after a step. "I'm just curious, how is it you think your brother ended up dead?"

"You shot at a client that Andy was protecting and you missed," John said.

"I don't miss. Your brother was the contract."

"Who would want to kill Andy?" John asked.

"I don't know their names, just an alias. H.I.V.E." Lawton just smirked and began walking away. "Food for thought John. Food for thought."

* * *

 

Felicity was the first one off the jet when it landed back on the tarmac and from the way she practically flew down the stairs and over to her car, someone would've thought she was on fire. However, when she came to a halt in front of the hood of her car and lovingly lifted the hood of her Camaro and began fiddling with something, the tension and urgency she had in her shoulders quickly dissipated. "Still here," she said followed by a sigh of relief.

"I was wondering why it wouldn't start after you left the other day?" Deucalion said, only to barely catch a wooden box Felicity had thrown at his head. "Really Ms. Smoke, throwing a heavy object at your blind uncle."

"You tried to drive my car." Felicity glared.

"Dare I say it, but I'm beginning to think you care more about that car than you do about me."

"Only a little," she joked.

"I had a very interesting conversation with Olga Knyazev earlier," Deucalion said. "She mentioned something about you and her brother blowing up a gulag."

"Technically John planted the bomb." Felicity motioned to one half of the happy couple who had barely stepped onto the tarmac.

Deucalion chuckled lightly and shook his head back and forth. "You couldn't have at least tried to refrain from getting into trouble."

"I think you're forgetting just who my father is."

Deucalion looked at her with a puzzled expression on his while he mulled over the words she had spoken in his head. She held out one hand and wiggled her fingers at him, showing off several band aids on her finger tips.

"Dad says hi." She quickly turned back around to lower the hood, and then picked up her bag and put it in the back before getting into the driver's seat. She waited a minute for her uncle to wrap his head around the new information before honking the horn at him two times. "You coming to dinner or not?" She yelled out the window. The other alpha seemed to be jolted out of his reverie at her question and got in the passenger seat.

"He's still there?" Deucalion double checked.

"He's safe," Felicity told him. "Now, what were you trying to tell me earlier about claiming pack members?"


	8. This is Why You Don't Do Drugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm three months late on an update and I owe you guys two more chapters on top of this one, but in my defense I literally had no idea what I wanted to do about this episode until 29 days ago, and the reason I remember the exact date is because I was driving home from work and I nearly ran a red light when the idea popped into my head. You will know what I'm talking about when you get there. As usual, this has not been beta read or edited, if you haven't noticed I'm about thirty minutes late. So, please don't kill me, and I will reply to everyone's reviews next chapter which I should have up by next week.

"Don't take this the wrong way but you look disgusting," Felicity said as John entered the office.

"Yeah, well I don't feel great Felicity," John replied. "Is there a right way to take that?"

"You should go home."

"I am going. I just need to make arrangements for a replacement body guard."

"Did you get the flu shot? Personally, I never do. I know that I should, I just, I have this thing about needles, all pointy things really, which is ironic considering who we work with."

"It's not the flu Felicity. It's something-" John reached out for her arm to steady his balance and then collapsed onto the floor.

"John?!"

* * *

Felicity was pulling as much pain from Digg's body as she could handle, but even when the alpha wasn't taking his pain she refused to cry out or stop tending his symptoms. She refused to let herself faint from exhaustion and overexertion; she refused to stop attempting to comfort him, but she also refused to push herself too hard.

If John were a wolf she wouldn't hesitate to give up one of her sparks. She wouldn't hesitate to go the extra mile to save his life, but John wasn't a wolf. Not once in recorded history had an alpha ever tried to save a human using their spark. And while there was a part of her that believed that fact to be unacceptable, there was a larger part of her saying there were too many reasons she couldn't try, and the most convincing reason in her mind was also the most surprising.

John was one of the strongest beings Felicity knew, and for some reason, the idea of not having faith in him scared her. She needed to trust in his strength, to trust he was strong enough to survive this on his own, because not trusting him could have disastrous consequences down the line, especially in their line of work.

There was also the fact if using her spark didn't work, if her sacrifice couldn't save him, it would feel like she had done nothing to help him. Siphoning his pain was helping, even if it was barely noticeable to John, it was helping him; she was helping him. She couldn't live with herself if she was useless, no matter how much she rationalized. This was one of those times the risk would never outweigh the reward.

Felicity watched as her veins turned black and knuckles turned white. She watched as her friend continued to shake and sweat. She watched her friend struggle to with whatever hold this sickness had over him. She watched her pack member fight for his life.

There was no point in lying about it now. John, Oliver, and Sara were pack, her pack. She might not be their leader, but she could protect them from others of her kind who wanted to do them harm. She could help in the mission to protect this territory, her territory. She would do what her mother had tried to. They could be a beacon in the dark.

The alpha was so distracted by her own inner workings she barely had enough time to stop siphoning pain from John before Oliver would be able to see the physical effects.

"What the hell are you doing here?" John asked Oliver.

"I heard you passed out," Oliver answered.

"I told Felicity not to call you," John said.

"Yeah, but before that you said 'gah' and 'thud' so I didn't take it very seriously," Felicity replied.

"She was right to call me. Diggle, you need medical attention," Oliver said.

"He needs more than that," Felicity corrected. "When Digg passed out I sent a sample of his blood to a chemist I know at QC. The guy owes me a favor, long story, I fixed his parking ticket. Huh, I guess it's not that long."

"Felicity, the blood sample?" Oliver reminded.

"It came back positive for trace amounts of vertigo," Felicity said.

"I've never used vertigo before in my life," John said.

"You were exposed to it somehow," Felicity replied.

"Vertigo is in play again?" Oliver asked.

"When the Count recovered from his OD on Vertigo he was sent to Iron Heights," Felicity said, going over to her computer to look something up.

"That got hit in the quake," Oliver pointed out. "He got out that the same way the doll maker did."

"And just like with the doll maker, prison officials worked over time to keep a lid on the escape," the werewolf confirmed.

Oliver went over to the weapons rack and picked up one of the smaller arrows.

"I know what you're thinking," Felicity began.

"No you don't," Oliver replied. "I made a choice not to put an arrow in this guy, and it was the right choice." The alpha nodded in understanding. "There is no more killing." He handed her the arrow. "I worked this up to counteract the effects of Vertigo. Give it to Diggle. I, I need to get back to court. While I'm gone, just look up whatever you can, and figure out how Diggle got Vertigo in his system without his knowledge."

Felicity nodded and again and shifted her attention down to the arrow at her finger tips. "Go."

"How are you feeling?" Oliver asked.

"Fine," John answered.

"You have a lousy poker face Diggle. Did he take the antidote?" Oliver asked, turning his attention to his other friend.

"It didn't work," Felicity answered, getting up from her seat. "The Count must have fluxed with his recipe."

"I heard what happened with Donner at the court and with Thea," Diggle said. "How is she?"

"It'll be fine," Oliver said.

"Your poker face isn't much better than mine Oliver," Diggle replied.

There was a loud burst of static interrupting the local news and the they turned their attention towards the screen.

"Hello Starling city," the Count greeted.

"Felicity!" Oliver said.

The alpha was already one step ahead, having lunged for her chair and began pulling up everything she would need to trace the broadcast.

"Miss me?" the Count asked. "Many of you have noticed that you are not feeling quite like yourselves."

"He took over all of the local station feeds," Felicity said.

"Track his signal," Oliver ordered.

"Like our good assistant district attorney here," the count continued. "You might recognize him from his work in the ongoing Moira Queen trial. Hi Adam."

"What do you want?" Donner asked.

"I want what you want," the Count replied. "For you to feel better."

"Go to hell," Donner replied.

"Because I do think you want the pain to end," the Count continued as if Donner hadn't spoken. "And I can do that, with vertigo. It's what all of your bodies crave. Fortunately, the power of relief is right here, and all you have to do is go to your friendly neighborhood vertigo dealer and request the cure. Simple supply and demand at work. Now, tell me you want this and it's yours, all that pain will just disappear. Say it. Say you want it."

"I, I, I want it," Donner admitted.

The Count had a sick gleam in his eyes as he injected the ADA with the illegal drug.

"You see a simple solution. I'm Count Vertigo and I approve this high." The count smiled insanely before shutting off the feed.

"What do we do now?" Felicity asked.

"We find him. We shut him down." Oliver told her. "Where did he broadcast from?"

"He bounced the signal from a STAR Labs satellite," Felicity said. "He could have sent that transmission from Markovia."

"He would want to stay local," Oliver replied. "Scrub the footage frame by frame if you have to. There is something on here that gives us a clue to where he is."

"If he dosed the whole city why are only some people showing symptoms?" Diggle asked.

"Maybe exposure was selective," Oliver replied. "The Count contaminated something that only certain people like you and Donner consumed."

Felicity drowned out the rest of the team's conversation, choosing to focus her skills on doing something productive to help, as opposed to what she actually wanted to be doing. Now that she knew what was happening to her friend, to the people in her city, and she knew who was responsible her anger had begun to boil beneath the surface. The Count needed to pay for what he was doing, for the hurt he was causing the people of the city. She was so focused in her hunt she didn't even realize how much time had passed before she was able to find any real information.

"At least let me call Lyla," Oliver said.

"All she could do is worry," John replied.

"I found something," Felicity said.

"I don't see anything," Oliver replied.

"Because, you have to see what Donner does," Felicity told them. She pulled up a zoomed in shot of the lawyer's eye.

"His eye caught a reflection," Oliver said. "Can you enhance it?"

"It hurts me that you feel the need to ask," Felicity replied.

"What are those wings?" John asked.

"No." Felicity shook her head. "It's the city seal. Starling municipal records department. That building has been abandoned since the city went digital. Dollars to donuts that is where the count is operating out of."

"Not for long."

* * *

"Felicity Smoak," Felicity answered her phone dutifully on the first ring.

"It's Sara," the distorted voice other end of the line said.

"How do I know you're really Sara?" Felicity asked, voice laced with skepticism.

"The last time your brother Derek visited Starling City he nearly broke Oliver's arm by pulling him through the open driver's side window of his sports car after nearly running over Cora, your youngest sister," the voice answered.

"Anyone could know that," Felicity replied.

"You gave me an encrypted cell phone as a thank you gift and your ex-fiancé's name is Will, assuming Allison is to be believed," the voice answered. "Also, I love the voice modulator app you installed. This is the best phone ever."

"Can you turn the modulator off now, please?" The werewolf winced when Sara changed her tone and the modulator responded with a series of loud interference noises. "It really hurts my ears."

"Sorry," Sara said in her normal voice. "Better now?"

"Much. Thanks. So, what's going on wherever you happen to be hiding today?" Felicity asked. "Anything interesting, because things here have been really quiet. So quiet I could probably catch a mouse if I were so inclined."

"I saw the news Felicity." Sara sighed.

"Oh. Is that why you're calling?"

"I need a favor, a personal favor," Sara admitted with a bit of reluctance.

"Why do I get the distinct impression I will not be hacking into something," Felicity said.

"I need you to talk to Laurel for me," Sara replied in a rushed voice.

"Whoa, whoa, red card, red card, red card," Felicity said.

"I'm not sure if I should be surprised you know sports or if I should chalk it up to your brothers," Sara said.

"Sara, you're my friend and there are many things I am willing to do for friends, but I like to think that talking to a near stranger on behalf of someone who they think is dead is pushing even my limits," the alpha werewolf explained.

"Laurel's working the case against Mrs. Queen in Donner's absence," Sara said. "She needs someone in her corner, because once she gets done with the case she's going to be beating herself to death, no matter the verdict."

"Oliver and Thea aren't going to care," Felicity argued. "I'm sure they're not going to hold the trial against her, especially since the only reason she is working the trial is because her boss got kidnapped by Count Vertigo."

"But Laurel will," Sara insisted. "I know my sister Felicity, and as a person who is uniquely qualified to understand exactly what Laurel is going through I'm hoping you will be sympathetic to her pain."

"I'm never letting you talk to my siblings ever again," Felicity replied.

"Felicity please," Sara nearly begged. "I can be on comms with you the entire time, talk you through it, and I'm sure if you introduce yourself as Hale instead of Smoak, Laurel will totally remember you," Sara added. "Besides, if you were in my position with Laura I would totally do this for you."

"The dead sibling card. Really? Below the belt, Sara. Totally below the belt."

"I know you can't see me over the phone, but I'm giving you the puppy dog eyes right now," Sara said.

"Why me?" Felicity groaned.

* * *

It wasn't hard to find Laurel in one of the multiple court house bathrooms and unfortunately Sara was right about how Laurel would be beating herself up. The acrid stench of self-loathing was very hard to not gag over, and had it not been recently aired Felicity would have been worried. But this scent was fresh, and would probably go away, she hoped.

"Did you find her?" Sara asked from the other end of the line.

"Do I need to take the bluetooth out?" Felicity threatened, walking up the steps and trying to stay out of Oliver and Thea's line of sight.

"No," Sara quickly replied. "Just trying to be helpful."

The alpha took a few deep breaths to try and calm her nerves. She had enough control to not shift accidentally, but it still did nothing to calm the butterflies using her stomach as some sort of newly acquired food source they all had to immediately flock to. _You are Felicity Smoak, Alpha Hale, second in command to the True Alpha. You can do this_ , Felicity had to constantly remind herself in order to not hyperventilate.

"Sometimes before I went on an assignment I would be such a ball of nervous energy my girlfriend would withhold sex, so I had something to work towards and keep my mind off the mission," Sara offered.

"I did not need to know that," Felicity told her. "That is actually one of the few things I did not and will not ever need or want to know."

"I'm just saying if you have a reward to focus on when this is over, you might not be so nervous," Sara replied.

"Almost any other example you could have used would be better than hearing about your sex life with your-" Felicity paused mid-sentence and wondered about the appropriate term to use for the person Sara was in love with. "Partner?"

"Beloved," Sara answered. "Technically, we're in a common law marriage but until I get a blessing from her father there will be no actual legally binding wedding."

"Is that her stipulation or yours?" Felicity asked.

"A bit of both," Sara answered. "It's complicated."

"Complicated." Felicity nodded in understanding. "When this is over, you owe me ice cream and a breakdown of your relationship with her."

"Why?"

"Because I need some semblance of normalcy in my life, and I am not talking to my siblings or the guys about their romantic interests. Some lines just shouldn't be crossed," Felicity explained. "And this in no way means we are talking about dirty details. I want the nice PG-13 version."

"You drive a hard bargain Felicity Smoak." Sara told her.

"You were the one that said find an incentive; my incentive is ice cream and a night of normalcy."

"Do you want me to stay on and talk you through it?" Sara asked.

"Stay on the line, but unless I say something that is going to get me killed, you should probably stay quiet," Felicity said.

"Sounds good."

Here goes nothing, Felicity thought to herself before stepping into the bathroom at a not quite normal human speed. A speed that impeded her balance and the durability of her heels, because less than two steps into the bathroom one of the heels of her shoe snapped and she went sliding on the wet bathroom floor, knocking over the wet floor sign, landing on her back with a loud thud and letting out a startled yelp.

"Are you ok?" Felicity heard Laurel ask.

"Oww." Felicity winced from her spot on the floor, despite the fact the pain was quickly leaving her body.

"Here let me help you." Laurel offered a hand and helped Felicity to her feet. "Are you sure you didn't hurt anything? You hit the floor pretty hard."

"It's ok, my pride cushioned the blow," Felicity joked. The smell seemed to dissipate a bit at the humor. "My shoe, on the other hand, that's probably beyond saving. Good thing I always have a pair of flats on me." Felicity pulled out a pair of ballet flats out of her purse that matched her dress, and slipped her heels off to put the shoes on.

"Handy," Laurel commented.

"Necessity of my life. Despite my parents being graceful, and all of my siblings being the most coordinated people on the planet, I'm clumsier than a horse in an ice rink," Felicity said. "Thanks for the hand."

"It's not a problem," Laurel replied.

"Felicity Hale," the alpha introduced herself.

"Laurel Lance," Laurel replied.

"Sara's sister?" Felicity questioned. It took the werewolf a minute to register the shock on Laurel's for what it was, along with a small spike of grief added to the preexisting scent. "Sorry. I just realized how that sounded. It's just Sara and I were friends in high school, and the last thing you probably want to be reminded of is- I'm going to stop talking now, 3, 2, 1…"

"If Laurel asks you were the student coach for varsity lacrosse," Sara provided in her ear piece.

"You knew Sara?" Laurel asked, actually sounding interested and little surprised.

"I was the student coach for lacrosse," Felicity lied. The scent became sweeter after the answer; fear being replaced by what she assumed was a happy memory. "Lacrosse is a big deal in my family and playing wasn't really an option with my reflexes, so I coached. Sara was actually one of the best players I've ever seen, at high school and college level. My younger brother had a serious case of hero worship whenever he came to a game."

"Isaac's going to kill you," Sara told her in a sing song voice.

"You sure you're talking about my sister?" Laurel asked.

"Tell her I tried to have the word 'canary' printed on my jersey and the coach went ballistic," Sara told her friend.

"Sara Lance, ye tall," Felicity held out her hand about eight inches above her head, "blonde hair, leather jacket, and tried to print the word 'canary' on the back of her jersey instead of her name."

"I totally forgot about that," Laurel admitted.

"I thought it was funny," Felicity said. "Coach, not so much." Felicity put her heels in her bag and walked over to the sink to wash her hands.

"So, what brings you to the court house, the media circus?" Laurel asked.

"Hardly," Felicity answered. "I'm here as a favor for a friend. Supposed to drop some papers off to our mutual boss, and I walked in the front door and got something sticky all over my hand. Pretty sure it used to be a lollipop."

"Yeah, it's much safer using the handicap button to go in and out," Laurel told her. "I don't think the janitors clean the outside door handles."

"Well, I will have to keep that in mind." Felicity shook her wet hands out over the sink. "Thanks again for the save and the advice."

"It's my pleasure."

"Have a good day, Laurel." Felicity quickly exited the bathroom at a fast yet human pace, allowing her to keep her balance, and make it out before Laurel or Sara said anything else. She pulled her phone up to her ear and pretended to accept a call. "You still there?"

"Yeah," Sara said. "She's ok?"

"For now at least," Felicity told her. "Won't really know anything else until the trial is over."

"But she's not freaking out?"

"No, she's not freaking out anymore. She seemed nostalgic to hear something nice about you."

* * *

"Oliver's got to be pretty wrapped up with his mother," John said. "You making any progress on how the Count is getting vertigo into people's system?"

"Not much," Felicity answered. "Each dot is the home of somebody with withdrawal symptoms." She pulled up a map on the monitor with a bunch of random dots highlighted.

"It seems pretty random," John said.

"That's because it's very random," Felicity replied.

"Ok. What if people weren't exposed at home? What if they got dosed at work?" John asked. "Can you do this by the employment addresses?"

"I'm really starting to wonder what it would take to impress you guys." Felicity sighed. She had a completely different map pulled up with a series of clicks. "It's like, it's a trail, a path through the city. Any place you've been?"

"59th and Dale," John answered. "That's where I got my flu shot."

"You got your vaccination from one of those trucks right?" Felicity asked. "One of those roaming flu trucks?" She hit a few buttons on her keyboard to pull up a new browser window. "The route, it's a flu vaccination tour. A truck sent out by Starling City mobile care."

"I got addicted after one injection?" Diggle questioned. "That could happen?"

"Sure," Felicity answered. "Try heroin some time. Not, try try."

"Alright," john said. "Where's the truck now?"

"Downtown. What do you think? Call Oliver?"

"No, no. He's busy with his family. I'll go," John said.

"Yeah, no," Felicity objected, getting up from her seat and grabbing her purse. "That's not happening. I'll go."

"Felicity, it's too dangerous," John said.

"It could turn out to be nothing," Felicity replied. "If it's not I'll call." She made her way towards the exit at the fastest walk manageable by human standards and then bolted for her car.

* * *

It hadn't been difficult to find the truck in the nearly empty lot. It probably wouldn't have been difficult to find the truck in a packed lot either, considering the putrid stench coming off of the vehicle in waves that reminded her of formaldehyde and the high school biology class she nearly flunked for not dissecting a frog. There were other scents too, mixed with the toxic scent of what she assumed was Vertigo. Two in particular she could use to track back to the Count, but the Vertigo was more important right now. She broke the lock with a simple tug and poked her head through the doorway. "Hello? Anybody home?"

She couldn't hear any nearby heartbeats and the scents she had picked up earlier were a little stronger, but not enough to indicate recent activity. Felicity started snooping through the cabinets and the drawers before finally coming across her prize. "Vertigo. Gotcha." Felicity smiled.

"Funny," the Count interrupted. "You took the words right out of my mouth." Then her world went dark.

* * *

Felicity tried to remember her training. She tried to remember how to stay calm and think rationally so she could gain the upper hand on her captor, but the with her wolf wanting blood, and her own anger making her control incredibly weak, it was taking every ounce of strength she possessed not to the let her wolf rip the Count to pieces.

"Felicity?" She heard Oliver answer.

"Oliver." The Count smiled. "Is it ok if I call you Oliver? Surprised to hear from me right? Not as surprised as I was. You see I find this not unattractive blonde getting all up in my business and what does she have on her? A Queen Consolidated ID badge. Now I think to myself, why does that name ring a bell? Oliver Queen. He tried to buy off me last year, just before the Hood put me in a padded cell. Ipso facto Arrow." The Count concluded the phone call as he swapped Felicity's phone for his gun.

"You need to let me go," Felicity tried to tell him. She was going for calm and rational, but due to her shaking it came out more as a stuttered mess.

"I'm not the one who is shaking with fear," the Count replied.

"This isn't fear," Felicity told him. She had finally managed to maneuver her claws into a position to cut the zip ties holding her. "This is anger and adrenaline, and that is a dangerous combination with me."

"Sure it is." The Count smiled. He started waving his gun around as he appeared to dance around Oliver's office. He even drank some of the wolfs bane and vervain laced whisky she had placed to make sure Oliver would never run the risk of being compelled or swayed.

"These offices are pretty swanky. I'm sure Oliver likes to enjoy the perfect view of all of the destruction mommy dearest caused that he couldn't stop," the Count said. The man wasn't paying attention to his hostage, but rather looking at the floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the Glades with what appeared to be wistful expression in his eyes.

Felicity managed to sever the first of the two ties with a small snap and a wince, but the Count hadn't noticed. She was having more difficulty with the second tie, despite having one hand free. She didn't want to tip her captor off that she was partially free, so instead of simply ripping the second tie, she left her free arm in place on the arm rest. She needed to distract the Count, which thankfully, was easy. The man was a talker. "Why are you doing this?"

"World peace and personal satisfaction of course," the Count answered. He turned to face her again, with an insane smile plastered on his face. "Isn't that what everyone wants." He seemed to dance across the office across Felicity's field of vision. "When your boss poisoned me and put me in that hole to rot, I was angry, and eventually that anger festered into hate. Luckily for me, Oliver Queen has enemies, rich enemies who hate him more than I do."

Felicity felt the second tie snap and she almost sighed aloud in relief. "Why do I feel like the words 'epic evil team up' are about to come out of your mouth?"

"You are a cheeky one. I can see why he keeps you around," the Count replied. "It probably off sets that brooding persona he seems to radiate when he works nights." The Count set his glass back down to fiddle with the desk ornaments. "But what I can't figure out is why you came after me yourself. Anyone with a brain can figure out that the Arrow has a team. There's Oliver, that inconspicuous man hulk that appears when things get really bad, then the newest addition, the blonde bombshell with the staff, and finally you. You were the safest, behind your monitors of wherever the little base of operations is. You had anonymity to protect you, or rather you did. So, I have to wonder why now?"

"Boredom," Felicity said.

"No." The Count smiled. He started heading back over to where she was seated. "I think you were angry. I think someone you care about was effected by my little modification to the flu vaccines, so you decided to fix this problem on your own. And that decision makes you a wild card, my dear. Just wait until I tell my new associate. He's going to eat this up."

"What makes you think he doesn't already know?"

"He would've mentioned your talent." The Count leaned over so he was level with her eyes. "Your eyes are so mesmerizing, such a vibrant shade of red. Where do I get eyes like that, I wonder?" His face was less than a foot away from hers now.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She could have clawed at his throat once and it would have been over. There was a part of her that wanted it; she wanted to kill him. The death grip she currently had on the arms of the office chair grounded her enough to not give in.

The Count ran his forefinger down the side of her face and down her neck. Felicity shut her eyes and shivered at the invasive contact, not wanting to prove him right. "Such a shame," he said. He stood back up and took a few steps away. "How I would've loved to see the shock on your face when you learned who paid for my latest scheme. But alas, you'll be dead." He pointed the gun at her. "I was thinking, I'd shoot you in the stomach now, let you bleed out in Oliver's arms with just enough time for you to say goodbye. Then when he's distracted, I'll blow his brains out from behind. The perfect way to end the perfect day."

The alpha knew this was her only chance to act, pushing up out of the chair with a roar and tackling her captor. She ducked her head to the side and wrapped her arms around the Count's waist so he would have a more difficult time shooting her while she pushed him towards the conference table in the other room. No amount of warning could have prepared her for the deafening explosions of the gun going off next to her head or the light shower of shattering glass. She managed to push him back several feet with little resistance only to feel as if she had hit a wall. She heard an audible crack followed by an almost wet sounding thud, only to be dwarfed by dead weight less than a second later. The Count's arms were suddenly lying limply across her back, and she moved away, assuming she had knocked the man unconscious.

She gasped in shock and horror at the sight she was met with, scrambling farther back and holding her hand over her mouth. The Count's back was bent backwards at a sharp angle, his head hanging down with blood running down his scalp and there was a large red blood stain on the edge of the conference table along with small blobs of pink squishy matter.

"No." Felicity shuddered. "No, no, no." She couldn't hear his heartbeat; she didn't even need to try and check to know he didn't have a pulse. She looked more closely at his head wound and saw his skull had partially caved, and the pink squishy blobs on the table were pieces of the Count's brain. "Oh, god, what have I done?"

Felicity scrambled as far away from the dead body as she could, settling for the far corner of the office with enough furniture blocking her view. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She was too horrified by her actions and the consequences to look anywhere but the patch of floor in front of her.

The werewolf could feel the edge of her vision getting blurrier, whether because of an oncoming panic attack or buildup of unshed tears she wasn't sure. Her pulse was picking up, pounding in her ears like a herd of stampeding elephants. She could hear the sound of her blood rushing through her veins, her own labored breathing sounding like the dying screams of some unidentifiable animal. She was too far gone into shock to even take solace in the fact she hadn't shifted.

She felt something warm on her arm and when finally looked up she saw a concerned Oliver crouched on the floor next to her. She tried to push herself farther away from him. "No. No," Felicity said. "Don't touch me."

"Felicity, it's safe," Oliver said. "You're safe now."

"I don't want to hurt you," the alpha whispered. Oliver looked at her quizzically for a second. "I killed him. I killed the Count. I don't want to kill you too. It's not safe for you. I'm not safe."

"Felicity-"

"I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you," Felicity whispered. "Please Oliver, please. You need to put me down."

* * *

Derek entered the closed club cautiously, not entirely sure why his sister would be staying here. He was able to make out her scent fairly easily, piecing together her trails and noticing from the strength that she came here fairly often. He looked around the bar and around the sound equipment that hadn't been put away, puzzled as to why his sister's recent scent was so strong at the building entrance but not anywhere people would hang out.

"Derek?" Oliver called out.

Derek followed the voice and was surprised to see his sister's friend standing in front of what he assumed was a closet. "Where is she?"

"She's here," Oliver replied. "I'll show you where, you just have to promise not to say anything and not ask questions."

"Fine," Derek immediately agreed. "Just show me where she is."

"There's something else too," Oliver said. "Something you should know about-"

"I already know you're the Arrow," Derek interrupted. "My friends and I aren't stupid and we won't tell anyone. We have enough shit on our own plates to deal with, so just take me to my sister."

Oliver nodded and punched in a code to enter open the door behind him. "She was attacked earlier. As soon as we found out we went after her, but when I got there it was already over."

The two of them quickly descended the stairs and Derek didn't even bother to bat an eyelash or pretend to stare in awe at the equipment. The werewolf caught onto the frantic heartbeat and scent he so was focused on, and his gaze zeroed in on a large supply cabinet.

"The second we got back she shut herself in," Oliver added when he noticed where Derek was staring. "The whole way back she refused any sort of unnecessary contact. Even when I tried to help her down the stairs, she just kept refusing help. Honestly, with the way her legs were trembling I'm surprised she hadn't collapsed just walking to the van. She's really shaken up."

"Her attacker, who is he?" Derek asked.

"He's known as the Count," John answered. The man was sitting in a chair with a heavy blanket wrapped around his shoulders. "He's an upper level drug dealer."

"Is he in custody?" Derek asked. He saw Oliver and John share a look that was easily recognizable, along with the familiar scent of dread. Derek sighed and shook his head. "Earlier, what did Lis say exactly?"

"She told me I needed to put her down," Oliver answered.

Derek took a deep breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to calm his own panic at the revelation. "Ok." He ran his hands over his face trying to buy time while he thought about what he needed to do and what he couldn't say in front of his sister's friends. "Do you know what happened, if he did anything?"

"We watched the security tapes. He was going to shoot her, she tackled him, they tripped, and he hit his head on the edge of a table," Oliver said. "He got a few shots off, but they didn't hit her."

"How long has she been in there?" Derek asked.

"Two and half hours," John answered. "She's been in and out of panic attacks the entire time. She's only been lucid for less than ten minutes, total. We can't seem to snap her out of it, so we called you."

Derek nodded in understanding and then made his way over to the cabinet. He knelt down on the floor and noticed that the door had some questionable outward dents, as if Felicity had tried grounding herself by hitting something. He ran his fingers over a few of the dents. "Lis? I know you're in there. If you can hear me, please say something." He wasn't sure how long he waited before he heard her heart rate begin to even out. He knew she was pulling herself out of a panic attack. She opened the cabinet door and crawled out, careful to keep the large blanket she had held around her shoulders.

"Hey." Derek attempted to smile, but he could tell from Felicity's expression it did nothing to cheer her up. He held out his arms to give the alpha an opportunity for snuggling if she wanted one. Felicity latched onto her brother, burrowing under his arm and hiding most of her face in the crook of his neck. "So is there a reason you were hiding in the cabinet?"

"It's cozy." Felicity took in a long comforting pull of her brother's scent. She could feel her wolf sigh in comfort, relishing in the re-enforcement of the bond and the calming feeling only cuddles and physical contact could provide.

"You guys need to invest in a couch," Derek said. "All these shiny surfaces and tables with only one fancy office chair. Where are you supposed to sit and rest, because this floor is cold and uncomfortable. Even the clinic has those chairs that can link together to form a bench."

"There's an extra cot in storage," Oliver said. "I'll be right back." He went around some of the tables, to the back of the room.

"Did he hurt you?" Derek asked.

"He got the drop on me, aside from being knocked unconscious, I'm fine." Felicity told him.

Derek knew she was lying, didn't even need to listen to her pulse skip a beat. Her face was buried in his shirt, and she hadn't looked in the face once. She was rattled. He could feel her wolf begin to calm down, but he had a feeling the human part of her was still in shock and wasn't anywhere near ready to deal with what had happened.

"I'm surprised the gun shots didn't rupture my ear drums." She mumbled.

"C'mon." Derek gently stood up and pulled his sister off the floor with him. "You need to sit somewhere that's not cold and dark." He noticed that Oliver and John were setting the cot up next to the computers. He gently guided her over there and by the time they were close enough to sit down, the other men were done setting it up. He sat down and Felicity curled up into a little ball on the opposite end. When he tried to put his arm around her shoulders again she shrugged him off.

"Don't," Felicity said. "I know what you're doing, and I don't want that type of help. It's better if you don't touch me."

"Lis," Derek replied.

"I said no." Her face instantly went from angry to appalled after the words leaving her mouth had registered in her head. "I don't deserve the luxury of comfort."

Derek's heart cracked at his sister's comment. "Why would you think that?"

"I killed someone. I took a life." Her body was shaking, but she wasn't crying and she wasn't fighting her wolf for control. "Take it back."

"Even if I could, I wouldn't," Derek replied. "You don't deserve what you're doing to yourself. Please Lis, let us help."

"You shouldn't have called him." Felicity told her friends.

"You need support," Oliver replied.

"We've been where you are right now," John said. "Felicity, we care about you, and you shouldn't go through this alone."

Derek watched as some new emotion emerged on his sister's face.

"Don't!" She snapped, getting up from the cot. "Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't do. You don't have any idea what's going through my head right now, so don't pretend to know. Maybe being alone is exactly what I need right now." She stormed out of the back entrance, not even bothering to grab a majority of her things off of her desk.

Derek wiped his hands over his face and let out a weary sigh.

"This is bad."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You see that comment box at the bottom below the kudos button, click kudos and write something nice please, unless of course you want to be like Damien Dark.
> 
> Don't be like Damien Dark, he's an asshole.


	9. Interlude: Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel compelled to point out that my weeks start on Monday, so technically this isn't late.
> 
> Please share your thoughts, even if it's only one word.
> 
> Italics are flash back.

"Felicity. Open the door kiddo," Thierry urged. "You wouldn't have called if you didn't need help." He leaned his back against the front door and slid down to sit on the stoop. It was easy for him to lock onto his friend's heartbeat and piece together where she was in the house, not so easy to figure out what had happened that sent her calling frantically late at night.

_Marcel threw a duffel bag full of clothes and blood bags in front of his desiccated form. "I'm gonna make you an offer and if you're smart you'll take it."_

_"If… I was… smart… I prob… ably… would…_ n't _be… in here," Thierry groaned as he struggled to get the sentence out._

_"Felicity is in trouble," Marcel told him. "She left me a voicemail less than an hour ago. Didn't say what happened or what was going on just that she needed help."_

_"What's… the deal?" Thierry gasped._

_"I let you out, give you blood, you go to Starling City and save someone who matters to us both. After, you can come back, and I'll shorten your sentence or you can leave the quarter for one hundred years and no one will go after you," Marcel explained. "The other option is you stay here and continue to rot with the knowledge you could have saved someone you cared about and didn't. It's your choice man."_

_"Deal." Thierry agreed._

"I can hear you on the other side of the door you know. I can also smell that purple reishi tea your mom liked, and somehow after all these years it smells worse than I remember." Thierry chuckled. "You remember the summer before your freshmen year at MIT? You were staying at the compound with Marcel because Clara and Joe were worried if you stayed with them you would revert back to your zombie mode. I remember you came running down the stairs one morning, Marcel and I hadn't even gone to sleep yet after fight night. You said you'd found Derek hiding in a youth hostel in New York City and demanded a ride to the airport. You looked like the bride of Frankenstein with your case of bedhead. I thought Marcel's spleen was going to burst from laughing so hard." He started to pick at the edging on his trumpet case before settling on simply opening and closing the latches repeatedly.

After he had developed a steady rhythm with the noise and several more minutes of Felicity's silence he tried again. "I could always force you out of the house with music. It would be such a shame to think that I'd brought my trumpet all the way here for nothing." He opened the lid and pulled out his mouth piece, rolling it between his palms to warm it up. "So many songs to choose from, I wonder what I'll start with…" He brought the horn out and put the mouth piece on before blowing air into it a few times to warm the pipes.

Halfway through his third set of jazz scale exercises and she opened the front door. He let the note he was on go with a whine when he realized how bad it was. She was in her favorite pair of sweats, hair clearly unwashed and hanging down, holding an untouched cup of hot tea in one hand and half empty bottle of whisky in the other.

"Didn't think you'd come," Felicity admitted.

"Can I come in?"

"It's a little hard to say no to vampires when your house is in the name of a dead woman." Felicity took a large swig of the liquor and slowly shuffled drunkenly back down the hallway.

"Then we'll talk to Deucalion and get the deed transferred over. You're an alpha now, you've got to be smart about this type of stuff." Thierry said, following her down the hall.

"Self-preservation isn't really a priority for me right now."

Thierry took a good look around to see that in the few hours since his friend had called for help she had completely deteriorated. There were at least five destroyed computers in the dining room, with numerous motherboards torn to pieces and sticks of ram twisted like they were curly fries. There was a crate of Wolf Hound on the kitchen island, three empty bottles, with two full ones sitting in a row. The cabinets were covered in gouges from claws and the granite counter tops were cracked in multiple places with impact fractures. When he was done surveying the damages he noticed Felicity was curled into a ball on the floor, resting atop a pile of blankets in the far corner of the room. The bottle in her hand had been nearly depleted now, and she was reaching for the full bottle next to her foot while chugging the remnants of the other.

"Come on." Thierry took the two bottles closest to her and then started to pack up the others. "We need to get you sober; clean this place up." He turned on the stove where a kettle was sitting and filled it with fresh water.

"What makes you think sobriety is what I need right now?" Felicity asked.

"The lack of vomit on the floor and your speech patterns," he answered. "You practically had to force feed yourself the first bottle, I can tell that from the stench coming from the disposal." He picked up the empty bottles and started washing them out to recycle. "You puked up the second and third bottles in the upstairs bathroom, and then you went after your tech because the alcohol was wearing off. When you ran out of parts to destroy you picked up the bottle you were on when I got here. After the first finger of that you made reishi tea, probably as a distraction, not that it worked."

"You forgot the part where I passed out for thirty minutes," Felicity added.

"Do you still keep most of the basics in the basement?" Thierry asked. "There's a potion spell combo Katy uses sometimes when some of the locals get a bit too rowdy. I can replicate it; get you sober faster."

"I'm fine. I don't need you here. Go away."

"You're lying. The reason I know you're lying is because you destroyed five computers and not the shitty ones you keep for spare parts, the good ones. The ones you use the most and are constantly trying to perfect. When I almost spilled coffee on your tablet you didn't talk to me for three weeks, so for you to destroy something you care about so deeply, you have to be lying about being fine."

"I said get out!" She got up from her corner and started advancing on him.

"No."

"LEAVE!"

Most of the glass in the house shattered at the alpha's exclamation and Thierry instinctively moved to protect her from the shards.

"Hey, you ok?" He asked, checking her over for injuries.

"Don't." She shrugged his hands off her and pushed him away. "I didn't call for you to come here and babysit me."

There was a loud banging on the front door, "SCPD is anybody home?"

"You have got to be kidding me." Felicity groaned, stomping over to the front door. "What?!" She threw the front door open.

"Ms. Smoak?" An officer with dark hair questioned, hand poised to knock on the door again.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Felicity let her head hang down and slumped forward.

"We got a call about a noise complaint," the officer said. "Something about a trumpet, and yelling, and smashing glass." He leaned inside the door and took a cursory look around only to stop when he saw Thierry surrounded by broken electronics and glass.

"Hello." Thierry waved.

"Ms. Smoak are you alright?" The officer asked.

"Officer Lance I swear this is so not what it looks like," Felicity said.

"Are you in some type of trouble? Do I need to call our mutual friend in green?" Officer Lance continued to question in a whisper.

"Officer I understand the confusion and it's obvious you know Felicity, but this is just a misunderstanding," Thierry said.

"You, shut up. No one is talking to you," Officer Lance snapped.

Thierry held up his hands in surrender.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you Officer Lance, I've had a really bad day and obviously I've been drinking," Felicity began.

"An entire bottle of whiskey," Thierry added.

"Would you shut up?" Felicity hissed. "Why are you even here right now?"

"Because you called saying you needed help, and when you leave a frantic voicemail on your friends' emergency cell phone, people have a tendency to think it's an emergency," Thierry replied.

"Does this have anything to do with what happened at Queen Consolidated earlier?" Officer Lance asked.

"What happened at your work?" Thierry asked.

"Nothing," She immediately replied. "Look, Officer Lance I'm sorry about the noise, one of my transformers blew in the kitchen and as you can see the lightbulbs shattered, and I will make sure Thierry knows not to play his trumpet in the middle of the night anymore. I've just had a really bad day, and I completely understand if you need to write me a ticket or something to that effect, but right now I just want to be left alone."

"You sure you're not in any trouble?" Officer Lance asked.

"Thierry is a really good friend, and honestly he's in more danger hanging around me than I could ever be hanging around him," Felicity admitted. "I was shaken over what happened, I had too much to drink, and I worried a friend of mine."

The officer stared at Thierry carefully for a moment seeming to take stock of him. "Quentin Lance," he held out his hand in introduction.

"Thierry Vanchure." The vampire replied giving it a firm shake. "I think I met your daughter, Sara? That's her name right? The blonde who was helping out the other day." He directed his last question to his friend.

"Yeah, that was Sara," the werewolf confirmed.

The officer nodded, making a mental note to double check with his younger daughter about what the two people in front of him were talking about. "You two seem to have this handled," he said. "Just keep the noise down from now on. If I have to come back, I really will write a citation."

"Thank you," Felicity said.

"Just take care of yourself Ms. Smoak."

Thierry watched the officer get back into his car and Felicity seemed to deflate when she shut the front door after his departure. "I get that I worried you and Marcel, but right now all I want to do is try and get some rest."

Thierry nodded in understanding. "You go to bed, I'll clean up down here and we can talk over a late breakfast."

"Sounds good." The werewolf nodded, shuffling up the stairs.

"Felicity."

"Yeah?" She paused and turned around.

"I'm glad you called," he told her.

* * *

 

Felicity woke up with the feeling of her brain liquefying and leaking out of her nose and her already heightened senses abnormally sensitive, specifically her hearing. Each heartbeat she heard sounded like someone was using the Earth as a giant basketball, bouncing up and down on the pavement. She moved out of bed and down the stairs at a pace slower than most snails, and wasn't entirely aware of her surroundings until she noticed someone was holding a warm cup of coffee underneath her nose.

"After you drink that we need to talk," Thierry said.

She took the mug out of his hand and by the time she had drunk most of its contents she was awake enough to realize what he had been doing while she slept.

Her personal laptop was on the kitchen table and running next to a large plate of dry toast and what she assumed were two glasses of blood.

"Here," Thierry took he empty coffee mug and handed her a glass of blood. "It's mine. It should clear whatever that creep gave you out of your system."

"How did you-"

"I found the security tapes on your computer after I watched the news," he replied. He pulled out her chair and motioned for her to sit down.

"He didn't do anything to me," Felicity told him.

"Please." He begged.

Felicity lifted the glass to her lips and drank the magical blood as quickly as she could. "I forgot how bad that tasted." She set the glass down on the table and sat down to eat the toast.

Thierry sat down across from her and simply wrapped his hands around his own beverage of choice. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"So you wouldn't look at me like that," she replied, not glancing up from the spot on the table that had captured her attention.

"Like what?"

"Like I'm a victim."

"You are," Thierry pointed out. "Felicity, a drug dealer abducted you and tried to kill you. Just because you fought back and lived to tell about it doesn't make you any less of a victim."

"You don't get it."

"What don't I get? What it's like to take a life? What it's like to feel helpless? What exactly are you feeling that I can't identify with?"

"I was hunting him." She looked up from the table when she replied. "He hurt a member of my pack and I was angry enough to go after him."

"You wouldn't have killed him."

"Except I did," Felicity pointed out. "I did kill him, and that wasn't even the worst of it, because when the shock wore off, when I realized what had happened, what I had done to him, I was relieved he was dead."

"That's normal."

"Is it though? Is it normal to hunt someone down and wait for the perfect moment to kill them and then be happy that they're gone? Because the last time I checked that put me in the same boat as Peter."

"Listen to me. You are not Peter. You are nothing like Peter. Peter didn't want revenge because he was hurt, he wanted it to prove how powerful he was," Thierry argued. "If Peter had simply wanted vengeance Laura would still be alive; he wouldn't have killed her. He wouldn't have killed his betas. What you did was self-defense, and it makes me sick that you had to go through that alone. But surviving what happened doesn't make you a monster."

"Then why do I feel like one?"

"Because you're a good person," he told her. He leaned forward and placed a comforting hand on her arm. "Eat your toast, and then I want you to meet me in the car. There's something we need to go do today."

"What?"

"Something we should have done a year ago."


	10. A Problem Like Malia's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So another late update. I would apologize, but I'm sure you'd rather I just updated more often. The good news is that the next chapter is about 85% done, so it will be up by the end of next week, then I think if I post a triple next month that should catch me up, maybe? I don't know. My original posting schedule is kind of all over the place. I completely lost track. Hope you guys enjoy.
> 
> Leave thoughts. They make my day, and it's always good to hear what you guys are thinking. I'm going to try and catch up on responding to reviews this week as well as posting again.
> 
> I do not own Arrow/Flash/Teen Wolf.

Derek was getting impatient waiting outside of the Queen mansion. He'd called Oliver only to get his voicemail, then called John only to get his voicemail, next he'd called Sara who said Oliver was at the mansion and if it was an emergency to go there, so here he was, standing on the Queen's front stoop with three maps under one arm, ringing the doorbell repeatedly until someone answered the door to let him in.

He heard the sound of footsteps approaching and was about to rip into Oliver when he opened the door only to not get sound out of his mouth when he realized Oliver wasn't the person who opened the door.

"Young man, do you have any idea how incredibly rude you're being?" Moira Queen asked.

Derek's expression quickly went from angry to mortified. "I am so sorry Mrs. Queen. Oliver called me late last night claiming it was an emergency and when he didn't show up earlier this morning I assumed this was his poor attempt at a very cruel practical joke."

"Derek," Oliver said, quickly walking over to the front door from the other room. "Did something happen?"

"You could say that," Derek ground out.

"Come in. Mom, you remember Derek Hale," Oliver said while motioning for the other man to enter the house.

Moira Queen's eyes opened in surprise while she took a closer look at the dark haired man in front of her. "Of course. You've grown so much since your family's last visit I didn't recognize you. How are you and your siblings? We were so sorry to hear about Laura."

"We're adjusting," Derek replied. "Lis and I are doing what we can to keep the company going, Isaac is swamped with school work, and Cora is studying abroad in Buenos Aires."

"Isaac?" Moira questioned.

"Our adopted brother," Derek answered. "Mom started the paperwork shortly before she died, but with her death, we couldn't get everything finalized until recently. He's Cora's age."

"Well, hopefully, we can all get together sometime soon, catch up," Moira said.

"That sounds good." Derek nodded. "And I'm sorry about the doorbell."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just happy to see you two boys getting along finally." She smiled.

"We're going to be in the kitchen," Oliver told his mom. "Working breakfast."

Moira nodded in understanding. "Try not to cause too much damage to the appliances. I know how you two can get when you disagree."

"We'll try," Derek said.

They both waited for Moira to head back towards the stairs before moving towards the kitchen, and once there Oliver closed the doors and began clearing thing off the table. "I was in the shower when you called. John's talking to some military contacts seeing if they can locate Felicity through her phone's GPS."

"Tell him not to bother." Derek pulled Felicity's destroyed phone in small Ziploc out of his pocket placed it on the table. "She's had too much practice covering her tracks to make a rookie mistake like hanging onto something with GPS."

"Are you sure she's not staying with her uncle or one of her friends?" Oliver double checked. "It's not like her to just leave without a word."

"Lis didn't leave," Derek corrected. "She's running, and I don't mean running away. It's part of her process. She isolates herself and then pushes her past her limits to the point of physical exhaustion. Last time something like this happened she went on a week-long bender in New Orleans and nearly got herself killed; if Marcel hadn't been there she'd be dead." Derek left out the part where several witches had tried to kill her for unrelated reasons, but he was trying to point out how serious the situation was. "And if you think my sister has other friends she trusts enough to go to with this, clearly you don't know her as well as I thought. Honestly, she probably has more trust issues than you."

"Ok, so if she's not partying, what would she be doing to push herself?" Oliver asked.

"She'll head for heavily wooded areas," Derek answered. He spread out one of the maps on the table and revealed a large satellite picture of the state, with the borders marked in yellow. "Lis wouldn't leave the state, not by herself. Marcel told me she had called him but when he tried to get her to explain what happened she hung up. He said Thierry volunteered to check on her, but when I stopped by the house I didn't see a sign of either of them being there." Derek pulled a marker out of his jacket pocket and started circling some of the possibilities.

"Why wooded areas?" Oliver questioned.

"It's something we've done since we were kids," Derek answered. "Our mom always encouraged us to spend time outside whenever possible. The woods are where we feel comfortable, where we feel the safest. Whenever one of us would get upset, we'd find a spot without people nearby and just lose ourselves in nature. There was this creek by our aunt and uncle's house, that was Lis' favorite place. They could never clear the surrounding brush out to farm, because the ground wasn't stable enough so that's where she went to feel closer to us. As much as she is loath to admit it, she's had more survivalist training than me and my other siblings combined. She'd live on a deserted island if it had a decent internet connection and a shipping address."

"Are there any activities she would favor: climbing, biking, swimming?"

"She wouldn't bring much with her if anything really." Derek shook his head. "She hates climbing. She would need open access to water, though."

"These areas are parks." Oliver pointed to two places on the map. "They're popular with campers this time of year."

"No. She'd want something away from people and traffic." Derek pulled out a translucent road map, and placed it over the first one, using the new layout to narrow down the possibilities. "Too much traffic in those." He crossed off two areas. "That one is surrounded by highways."

"What about here?" Oliver pointed to a spot near the southern border.

"No that's too close to the state line." Derek left out the part where not even a mile away there was a known associate of the Calaveras who had not signed the peace treaty and would shoot any wolf on sight.

Derek heard the side door open and hurried booted steps approach. "Have you heard anything?" Oliver asked.

"None of my contacts were able to track Felicity's movements more recently than two days ago. Wherever she is, she's not using her computer." John told them.

"She destroyed her phone and flushed it for good measure," Derek replied, motioning to the destroyed electronic.

"Lyla couldn't find anything on her credit card statements either." John let out a heavy sigh. "But I called Lance to see if he could check out CCTV, he said there was a noise complaint at Felicity's house last night and when he got there to check it out she was drunk, her house was trashed, and there was a weird guy there who claimed to know Sara."

"Thierry." Derek groaned.

"Something you feel like sharing?" Oliver asked.

"He took her on a run. Which means we have about six hours to find where they went before there's a good chance Lis won't want to come back."

* * *

 

They were running through the woods, or rather, the more accurate description was Felicity was running while Thierry poked and prodded her with annoying objects when she slowed down, most of them sticks. Her friend was steadily going from one of her favorite people to one of her least. Why Thierry had the brilliant idea to go to some private heavily wooded area (despite being asleep for most of the travel time she knew what a no trespassing sign looked like) to run around for several hours and not stop short of fainting mid-step from exhaustion.

"This is the worst idea you've ever had!" Felicity hissed. "And that includes the time you wanted me to help you count cards so you could pay for that stupid boat ticket to replace a substitute trumpet player on a goddamned river cruise."

"It was a charity event," Thierry replied.

"You used it to get laid."

"Well the original intention was to go to college," He said.

"Except the woman you slept with was the scout's kid and you wound up getting blacklisted from every jazz music program south of the Mason-Dixon line," she argued. "Something no amount of compulsion or an army of vampires can fix."

"Is it really necessary to rub salt in that particular wound? I already apologized for using your genius for personal gain and Marcel made me drink straight vervain for a week when he found out I took you to a casino." Thierry shuddered at the memory.

"Yes, it really is. We are running in the woods on private property because, for some strange odd reason, you seem to think participating in our own private marathon is going to help me," Felicity snapped. "This is not helping."

"Less talking more running." Thierry smiled, prodding her in the back again with a pointed stick.

"I fucking hate you."

"As soon as the sun sets we can stop and make camp for the night," he told her. "Make a fire, scrounge up some rabbits, eat a nice filling dinner before we do what we came here to do."

"I'm too exhausted to keep going for another-" she looked down at her wrist at the barely used watch Thierry had forced her to wear. "Three hours!" She stopped in her astonishment.

"C'mon, no stopping." He poked her two times, but she wasn't moving. "You know it's worse if you stop."

"No."

"Lis, kiddo, I need you to trust me on this."

"No." She snapped. "What are we doing here?"

"Because the last time something like this happened you nearly died from alcohol poisoning," he pointed out. "You weren't even in town for two days before Marcel and I had to check you into the hospital, and you don't even remember us having to do it. What's worse is that while you were out of it, you were antagonizing the witches and the packs, because despite being your best friends, despite knowing you for almost a decade, you didn't trust us enough to let us help you."

"And trespassing on private property and running me ragged is helping?" Felicity scoffed.

"It's better than you getting completely plastered and jeopardizing your life. Something you were on the verge of doing when I got to your house last night." Thierry snapped. "You could've died last night, between the flying glass, trashing your computers, and getting drunk on whiskey, you're lucky your house didn't catch fire."

"I was fine!"

"Were you? Because from where I was standing you weren't." Thierry sighed and dropped the stick before leaning over for a few deep breaths of air.

"Look, I'm not good with all of this wolf stuff, ok," the vampire tried to explain. "I'm a book person, and wolves are not book people, they don't write their shit down. You either hear about it from other wolves or you don't, and until recently neither of us were in a position to really hear about this type of stuff, you know? But I know you. We've been friends for more than nine years and when you told me about getting your wolf back I was so happy for you, but now I'm afraid for you. I'm afraid because the one thing I do know about wolves is that when they don't deal with their emotions they lose control and black out only to wake up surrounded by bodies, and I don't want that to happen to you. So I thought if I brought you out here and I helped you through the only tradition I knew about then you wouldn't have to go through that."

Felicity nodded in understanding. "How about if you stop trying to run me to the point where I'm too tired to move and worrying so much, I'll stop acting like a petulant self-destructive teenager and let you help me through the rest of this tradition/ritual thing."

"I can work with that."

* * *

 

"How could you be so stupid?" Derek yelled into his phone.

"Hey, I'm not the one that sent her running in the first place," Marcel said. "She called me because she wanted my help, not yours."

"And breaking your mutual friend out of prison, the prison that you put him in might I add, and having him come up here to help with my emotionally overloaded sister who has a biological impulse to kill him three nights a month is your idea of helping?" Derek replied. "What the hell is wrong with you? What happens when they start talking and Lis realizes Thierry has been desiccating for the past three months? Or when she finds out that Katy, one of the few witches she actually considered a semi-decent human being, was killed by your crazy father figure trying to break Thierry out? Or when she finds out that you've been lying about said father figure's whereabouts for weeks?"

"Thierry won't tell her anything," Marcel replied. "Klaus isn't her problem to deal with, he's mine, and Thierry knows if he mentions the Mikaelson's being back in the quarter it's going to be a bloodbath. He wouldn't put Felicity in danger like that."

"That doesn't mean he won't accidentally let something slip. If Felicity finds out the original hybrid is in the quarter, she's going to go down there and try to do the responsible thing, and if Klaus finds out there's a different type of hybrid, one who isn't bound by the laws of the universe, he's going to turn her blood into a freaking commodity," Derek continued.

"I know." Marcel sighed. "I lived with the Mikaelson's for more than 100 years, you think I don't know how the man who raised me is going to respond to that type of challenge? Felicity being in the quarter right now is something neither of us want."

Derek covered the mouthpiece of his phone and let out a frustrated growl, before going back to the conversation. "You know Thierry the best. Where would he take her?"

"I told you, he'd take her somewhere isolated, somewhere she was comfortable, but wouldn't run the risk of anyone getting hurt if she lost control," Marcel said.

"But what would they be doing?" Derek pushed.

"How the hell am I supposed to know. Thierry is the one who knows all of the different traditions, not me. They could be holed up in his stupid cabin going on a peyote-fueled vision quest or halfway down to Mexico to turn themselves into the Calaveras. I don't know. What did you do when you had your first kill?"

"Those were entirely different circumstances," Derek said.

"I'm not saying they weren't, but you and your older sister are alike enough in personality to accurately guess what is probably going through her mind right now."

Derek sighed. "She's probably angry and ashamed. I mean, she just had her first kill, that's bound to trigger a lot of deeply buried emotional baggage."

"Trigger," Marcel said. "Thierry said when young wolves trigger their curse there's a pack bonfire where they do some sort of remembrance thing. What if they went to the cabin to do that? Felicity doesn't have any other wolves in her pack, so what if Thierry is trying to go through the motions with her hoping it's enough so she doesn't black out later?"

"Do you have an address?" Derek asked.

"I'll text it to you, just make sure they're both ok."

* * *

 

"Tell me there is a point to this," Felicity said as she poked the embers of their small campfire with a stick. "It's really disappointing to have a campfire and not be roasting marshmallows, so this tiny pit of heat-induced chemical reactions better have a point to it."

"You know, for someone very determined to learn about her culture, you don't tolerate much when it comes to the other type of werewolves," Thierry replied.

"I have my reasons," Felicity said. "And the only reason I'm so determined to learn is so I can change things. I don't want what happened to me to happen to anyone else."

"It won't." Thierry told her. "As far as anyone knows that spell has only been used twice in all of recorded history."

"And what about unrecorded history?" She asked.

"Lis-"

"And even if it only has been used twice, that's still two times too many." Felicity added. "No one should have their soul ripped in half like that for simply being born."

"What is this about?" Thierry asked. "Did something happen with one of the other packs?"

"The North East Atlantic pack contacted me," Felicity said. "They've put in a formal request for my assistance in training their heir when they come of age."

"The North East Atlantic pack doesn't have an heir," Thierry replied. "The North East Atlantic pack are nomads. They haven't had an heir for 1000 years."

"Trust me, I am very aware of the implications." Felicity sighed.

"Wait, if they contacted you, what does that mean?" Thierry asked. "Shouldn't they have contacted a closer alpha, an alpha from their own subspecies?"

"There are two reasons why they would contact me, if the heir was able to control the shift, or if they were a royal," Felicity said. "Considering the pack and who their current alpha is my money is on the first option."

"But it could be a royal." Thierry pointed out.

"If they had a fixed royal they would have shouted it from every rooftop in North America, and can you honestly believe, from the stories we've heard, that Klaus Mikaelson would give away his title?"

"I think Klaus Mikaelson giving away his title is more plausible than him having a kid. He's a vampire Felicity. We can't have kids. We're dead."

"I know. Ok, trust me I know." Felicity groaned. "I can't even believe this is the conversation I'm choosing to have with you right now. I mean, I just killed someone, and we're sitting here talking about politics, like this is normal, like I'm not precariously close to falling over the edge with my grief-induced self-destructive tendencies."

They both sat there in silence, gazing into the flames as if the answers to their problems would be magically provided to them.

"You didn't fall over the edge," Thierry said. "Yeah, you lashed out, but you also asked for help. So you yelled and threw things on the floor, who doesn't from time to time. Your pack will forgive you for that and so will Derek. The important thing is that you're safe, and when you're ready to talk about what happened you have people who will listen to you without judgment."

Felicity nodded in understanding. "So what exactly is the point of this?"

"We sit. We eat. We drink." He pointed to the dead rabbits and water bottles he had sitting next to his feet. "We remember." He pulled out a pair of fingerless gloves from his pocket. "I stole these from SCPD evidence lock up last night when you were sleeping. They were his." He handed the gloves to her.

"Why did you take them?"

"Some packs have memorials to remember their fallen, and others have memorials to remember the people who are responsible for terrible evils, but there's at least one pack I know of that keeps things that belonged to the people they've killed, not as trophies, but to remember that life is precious and to come to terms with what they'd done. I thought, if you wanted to, you could start a memorial like that out here," Thierry offered.

"I couldn't." She shook her head back and forth. "This place is your sanctuary. I couldn't take it away from you."

"You're not, I'm offering. I want you to do this. Besides, it's not like I'm going to be able to spend a lot of time here in the future anyways." He sighed. "If you had any idea how much crap I've had to put up with since the funeral." He paused trying to figure out how to explain everything without worrying his friend. "I just need a break for a little while, and as much as I love this place, hiding here would be like sticking a giant neon sign with an arrow visible from outer space announcing my location."

"You could stay with me," she suggested.

"That would be a slightly smaller neon sign and we both know it."

Felicity nodded. She stood up and placed the gloves near the trunk of a tree, far enough away from the cabin and the fire where they wouldn't be disturbed, but close enough they were visible and wouldn't be bothered by the local wildlife.

"You'd tell me, right? If you weren't ok?" She asked sitting back down on the log.

"Of course." He smiled. "This is just one of those situations where I have to bury myself in a hole somewhere and ride it out until everything blows over because there's nothing I can do to fix it and it's not my fight."

"Yeah, I am intimately familiar with that feeling." She chuckled. "So, rabbits. Do people still eat rabbits?"

"You've never eaten rabbit? Oh, Felicity Smoak, be prepared for the best rotisserie meat in your entire life." He joked.

"If you had any idea how hungry I was you wouldn't joke about this."

"Who said I was joking? I get to squeeze out the blood, you get the leftover meat. This right here is a match made in heaven."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be such an ass."

* * *

"I can't believe we're doing this," Oliver said.

"Shh." Derek spun around and held one finger to his lips. "My sister is out here, either having some much-needed self-reflection time or turning into a hermit and building a yurt out of animal skins. Only one of those options is good for everyone's continued well-being because yurt building zombie Felicity scares the ever loving crap out of me, and if she finds out we're skulking through the woods to find her against her will, our chances of becoming zombie food increase significantly. So shut up, and skulk more quietly."

"So what do we do if we encounter zombie Felicity?" John asked.

"Pray to whatever god you believe in for a quick and relatively painless death," Derek replied.

"I can't tell if he's being serious," John whispered to Oliver.

Oliver shrugged in reply as they continued on their trek, having completely given up on trying to guess Derek's mood at any given point.

Suddenly the was a loud crack of a branch snapping and the three men started looking at each other accusingly.

"You guys have taken creepy to a whole new level," a new voice said.

The men all spun around and saw Thierry holding a dead deer over his shoulders and a look of amusement in his eyes.

"I hope you're hungry. I didn't kill this bad boy for nothing." He started heading in the direction they had been moving towards at a faster pace, and when he didn't hear anyone moving behind him, he turned around. "Seriously, do I need to mail you formal invitations?"

Oliver, John, and Derek hurried to bridge the gap and after a few minutes they saw Felicity tending a fire with four rabbits roasting on some type of spit, and a small cabin a little farther away.

"You'll never guess who I found," Thierry said as he threw the deer on the ground.

"I'm not sure if I'm surprised or relieved," Felicity told them after looking over their appearances.

"We were worried," Derek said.

"Obviously." She replied.

Felicity didn't move from her spot by the fire and the guys just stood where they were awkwardly, while Thierry was standing to the side and kept looking between the two groups, only for all four of their gazes to shift to him after a few minutes. "I'm going to clean the deer." He picked up the animal and put it back over his shoulders. "Behind the house, so you can talk."

"So," Derek began. "You look well."

"You saw the house," Felicity guessed.

"We're you hurt?" Oliver asked.

"No. I wasn't hurt." She answered. "I'm sorry I yelled at you guys. You didn't deserve that."

"So you're camping?" John guessed.

"Considering my previous history with self-destructive behaviors when dealing with personal tragedy, I felt it was necessary to seek assistance from friends who are more used to dealing with said self-destructive behaviors," Felicity said. "I didn't want to hurt you on accident."

"Felicity-" Oliver began.

"No." She interrupted. "It's happened before, and I'm not going to pretend that it could never happen again. I have a lot of stuff to work through, not just about what happened with the Count, but some personal things that I've been putting off way too long."

"This is helping?" Derek asked. "Being here is actually helping?"

"It is." Felicity nodded. "I know what my being here looked like to you, Derek, but oddly enough Thierry had the right idea."

The group was silent for a few minutes. "Do you want us to go?" Oliver asked.

"No. It's dark out, and Thierry already killed that deer, and if we don't eat it now it'll attract scavengers, not to mention I'd be worried about whether or not you guys made it back to civilization ok, not that you three couldn't, because you probably could, it's just that I wouldn't have any real way of knowing since I destroyed my phone, and Thierry left his back with the rental car, so if you did, I mean when you did you couldn't call and tell me, and maybe I should convince him of getting a landline out here in case of emergencies, because like what if there's a fire, or maybe a bear attacks the cabin or a wolf could wander here on a full moon and no one would have any way of knowing- and I'm going to top in 3, 2, 1."

"I can come back now, right?" Thierry yelled.

"Yes." They all replied in unison.

There was a scuffling noise and Thierry was holding up the skinned hind portion of the deer in front of him. "Can one of you put this on the spit and another person light the other pit, while I finish with the other half. There's more wood by the side of the cabin. If we try and cook the whole thing over one fire, it's going to take forever."

"Sure." John agreed. He headed over towards the wood pile while Derek took the uncooked meat out of the vampire's hands.

"How did you skin that so fast?" Oliver asked.

"Practice," Thierry replied. "Sometimes I feel like I've been doing this for fifty years, you know?" He quickly headed back the way he came.

Oliver tilted his head to the side while he mulled over the other man's words.

Felicity chuckled and shook her head at her friend's antics. "Don't over think it Oliver. The truth is literally so simple it would shock you."

Oliver just shook his head back and forth before sitting down next to Felicity to help with the rabbits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is part one of the introduction/unofficial Flash crossover event, and we get to see more of the TW pack in Starling City.


	11. A Flash of Lightning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I did it. And for future reference, when I say something will be up sometime next week, I mean in the next 7-14 days. The whole days of the week thing is just really weird, considering my circumstances. But here's episode 8, you'll notice I made a few changes and didn't include a particular party scene, and there's a reason for that, you'll see why in the next chapter. I should have it up by August 10, and then a double chapter later that month. And then everything should be back on track posting wise. Please review and comment. Even the smallest of messages have the ability to turn my day around.

"Mrs. Queen, welcome back to the company," Felicity said. The alpha was very nervous and trying not to say anything she would regret in the new and awkward situation.

"Thank you." Moira smiled politely as she entered the office.

"You look fabulous. Really better than ever. Did you do something to your hair?" Felicity continued to talk due to her nerves.

"Yes, I shampooed it without eight women and a guard watching."

Felicity chuckled, "Oh is it ok to laugh? Because I was ordered not to say anything about you being in prison just to avoid any awkward exchanges." Moira cringed and headed out of the reception area.

"Like that one?" Oliver asked, before following his mother.

"Right," Felicity nodded to John, before going back to her desk and eavesdropping on the board meeting already in progress.

" _We need to drill down on these numbers before the earnings cull." Isabel paused for a moment and there was a shuffling of paper. "Oliver, I didn't realize your mother was stopping by for a visit today." Isabel said._

" _Well it's not a visit this is her company too," Oliver replied._

" _Of course," Isabel replied. "How are you Moira?"_

" _Back Isabel." Mrs. Queen said._

" _Mr. Queen may I speak to you for a minute?"_

Felicity cringed at the possibilities where Oliver's conversation with Rochev was going to go, none of them were pleasant for her pack member.

" _What sort of message does it send to the investment community, to the city, if we hand Queen Consolidated right back to your mother?" Isabel asked._

" _She was acquitted."_

" _By a jury, not by the city. Oliver, stop thinking like a son and start thinking like a CEO."_

Felicity heard a buzzing sound, and looked up to see John answering his phone, only for his eyes to widen marginally in surprise and to go inside the office.

"Oliver," John said. "There has been a break in."

* * *

The team was staring at the crushed lab door in partial shock. Felicity was going through a mental list of the supernatural creatures and criminals in the city and cross referencing them with the list of people who were capable of inflicting this type of damage.

"This door was made of expanded reinforced titanium," John said. "What did they use to do this?"

"We're not sure yet," Officer Lance replied. "No sign of any explosives. Maybe a crane, maybe a forklift. We're guessing there was at least three of them maybe four. Given how quick they got in and out of here, they were fast. Any idea what these guys were so hot to break in here for? You didn't happen to leave a spare earthquake machine lying around, did you?" the team winced at the remark. "Sorry."

"This is what we were able to pull off the uh security cameras," the CSU tech added. He held out a tablet so they could watch the footage. "This is the only guy we got on video. The rest of the crew must have come in after."

"Actually," a man with a suitcase interrupted. He hurried to close the space between him and the group. "It was only one guy. Sorry I'm late, well actually my train was late. Well, the second one, the first one I did miss, but that was my cab driver's fault, I've got this great traffic app and he thought that he was right. But I'm here now though so."

"Great. Who the hell are you?" Lance asked.

"And do your parents know that you're here?" Oliver asked.

"I'm Barry Allen, I'm from the Central City Police Department with the crime scene investigation unit. We're working on a case with some similar unexplained elements in Central City so when the report of your robbery came over the wire my Captain sent me up here," Barry answered.

"And you think one guy ripped through this door like it was tinfoil?" Lance asked, clearly skeptical.

"One very strong guy," Barry nodded. "Yeah. It takes about twelve hundred fifty foot pounds of torque to break someone's neck. You see the marks on the guard's neck. The bruising pattern suggests that the killer used only one hand. I'm guessing you don't know how hard it is to break someone's neck?"

"Hmm," Oliver said. "No, no idea."

"Umm," the other CSU tech interrupted. "We're gonna need a list of the entire inventory here to figure out exactly what was stolen."

"Actually, I think I know what was stolen," Barry said. He headed over to the large hole in the floor. "A centrifuge, an industrial centrifuge. Probably the Kord Enterprises 2BX900, maybe the six series, both have a three column base. Here you can see the three sets of broken bolts where the thief just… pff… ripped it out of the ground."

"What exactly is a centrifuge?" Lance asked.

"It separates liquids," Felicity answered. "The centripetal acceleration causes denser substances to separate out along the radial direction."

"The lighter objects move to the top," Barry added.

"What did you say your name was again?" Felicity asked.

"Barry. Allen."

"Felicity. Smoak."

"Umm. You can see the cracks heading towards the door, footsteps, one guy. Anyway it's just a theory, one backed by a lot of evidence." Barry added.

"There has to be another explanation," Lance said.

"Yeah, no, I'm sure you're right," Barry said.

"You might want to fill our mutual friend in on this," Lance told Felicity as he led her a little further away from the scene.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he's already on it." Felicity nodded.

* * *

"Oliver, I got the final inventory from applied sciences," John said entering the office. "That CSI from Central City was right. The only thing missing is a centrifuge."

"You have to see this," Felicity said. She held out her tablet and pressed play on the video. "I pulled up CC traffic camera footage from across the street from applied sciences, this is three minutes after the alarm went off." While her pack members were watching she quickly crossed several names of the list of potential suspects along with several creature types. She was so distracted with her list she completely missed someone approaching the office.

"Can we help you with something Detective?" Oliver asked.

"Oh CSIs aren't actually detectives," Barry said. "We don't even carry guns, just some plastic baggies." Barry laughed. "Where should I set up my equipment?"

"I'll show you," Felicity said.

"What's going on?" Oliver asked.

"Your assistant said that you preferred to keep the investigation in house, so I cleared it with my Captain to give you a hand," Barry replied.

Oliver pulled Felicity gently by the elbow over to the corner. "What are you doing?"

"We need to find this intruder, and he seems to know more about it than any of us," Felicity replied. "Forensic science isn't exactly my forte so… I say we need him. Wouldn't you?"

Oliver nodded hesitantly.

"I'll show you around," Felicity smiled. She exited the office but wasn't far away enough not to pick up the tail end of John and Oliver's conversation.

" _Why am I getting the feeling that you know more about this than Felicity's new friend?" John asked._

" _Pray I'm wrong," Oliver replied._

* * *

Felicity had just finished setting up the specialized computers in the warehouse, when her phone rang. "Alpha Hale, Queen of werewolves everywhere."

"I know you think you're being cute, but you're not," Derek said.

"I am hurt little brother. Your lack of faith in your supreme second in command wounds me deeply."

"Why does Isaac want a ride to the train station?" Derek asked.

"The answer to your question is fairly obvious, in that our younger brother wants to go to the train station."

"Lis." Derek sighed.

"Derek I am not a telepath, I can't read cub's mind," she replied. She felt her phone vibrate in her hand once. "Hang on, I've got a text." She lowered her phone and read the screen. "Isaac and Cora are coming to stay at the house with me for a couple of days?"

"WHAT!?" Derek yelled loud enough for even Barry to be distracted from several feet away.

She slowly put the phone next to her ear again. "Need I remind you who is listed as our younger sibling's legal guardian, or are you going to yell some more?"

"They can't just travel around the world whenever they feel like it and not tell anyone."

Felicity's phone vibrated again and she checked the new message. "Surprise. I let myself in the house. See you for dinner."

"You leave your door unlocked?" Derek asked.

"No. I had extra keys made for Cora and Isaac," Felicity answered after raising the phone again. "They're our siblings Derek, they should be able to come to us in times of need. And I shouldn't have to remind you who is listed as their legal guardian."

"So this is fine, them travelling anywhere they want without any notice whatsoever?"

"In this instance, yes, because their visiting one of us. If Cora wanted to spend a weekend in Beacon Hills I'd be fine with it, as long as I knew she had gotten there safely."

"I don't believe you," he replied.

"We're not Mom, and in this instance I think it would be better if we didn't try to be. And stop staring at the phone like you want it destroyed. I can hear you glaring at it, and that shouldn't even be possible." Felicity took in a breath. "If you're that worried, why don't you come to Starling too. There's probably room on the train Isaac is taking, things are a little crazy at work right this second but I'll most likely have time to do something on the weekend with you guys."

"I just visited you."

"That was a freak out, not a visit," Felicity argued. "It'll be fun. We can do something not related to the end of life as we know it."

"Fine."

"See you guys later tonight. Love you bro, give my love to cub." Felicity smiled.

She heard Derek sigh heavily before he grumbled something barely audible that sounded like 'ditto'. She quickly checked her email and noticed some invite from Oliver about a party for his mother, quickly followed by an actual email from the man saying he was planning a party and he was sending her the guestlist and catering information for the RSVPs. She simply rolled her eyes and shook her head before turning her attention back to Barry, who had been staring intently at the floor for several minutes.

"What exactly are you looking for?" Felicity asked.

"Your thief's shoes touched the ground, which means he tracked in dozens of clues as to where he's been the past few days," Barry answered. "Gotcha." Barry used his tweezers to pick up something off the ground and put it in his gloved hand. "This shouldn't take long." Barry put the evidence in the machine and they both turned to the computer.

"So, you've seen him right? The vigilante?" Barry asked. "I read that he saved you. What was he like?"

"Green," Felicity answered.

"Green," Barry repeated. "That's interesting, right. I mean, why green? Black would be better for stealth and urban camouflage. Me, personally, I think that he trained in some sort of like forest or jungle environment and the green is a nod to that."

"I don't give the vigilante much thought," Felicity replied.

"Police reports show that he uses carbon arrows, but if he switched to an aluminum carbon composite he would have far better penetration."

"Maybe he thinks he penetrates just fine," Felicity muttered to herself.

"Do you want to know something else? I think that he has partners. Definitely someone with a background in computer science."

"Why are you so interested in the vigilante?" Felicity asked.

"When I was eleven my mom was murdered," Barry admitted.

"I'm so sorry."

"They never caught the guy who did it. Maybe he would've."

Felicity took in a breath of air and slowly let it out before voicing the thought that was running through her head. "It's not all it's cracked up to be, finding out the truth about situations like that." Barry tilted his head slightly to the side, silently asking her to explain the comment. "My Mom and Stepdad were killed in fire when I was in high school. Everyone told us it was an accident, but my siblings and I knew better, or at least we thought we did. Eventually we found the woman responsible and got the proof we needed to send her to jail and get justice, but not before one of my younger sisters was murdered, my uncle went crazy and was set on fire twice, and one of my younger brothers was raped and tortured. I'd say it was bittersweet, but there was nothing sweet about it, because all I managed to do was get what was left of my family hurt and killed."

"I, I don't, I didn't, I'm sorry," Barry stammered.

"And that came out really depressing and not encouraging at all," Felicity hung her head for a minute while she tried to think of a better way to express the wisdom she was trying to impart. "I'm not saying you shouldn't look into your mom's case. Just be careful if you do, and it's not that I don't think you're careful, because you do strike me as the type of person who is careful because you pay close attention to detail, I mean you would have to be to work as a CSI or you wouldn't be very good at your job, and from the way you handled the crime scene earlier and the way everything is set up now- and 3, 2, 1." She quickly shut her mouth and started again. "I wouldn't wish what happened to me and my family on anyone, especially you."

The computer beeped and pulled the two out of their conversation.

"The soil has a crystalline structure in it," Barry said after he looked over the monitor. "That's weird."

"What's weird?" Felicity asked.

"It's sugar."

* * *

"Found something?" Oliver asked as he entered the lab with John.

"We found something," Felicity said.

"There were trace amounts of sucrose and a speck of dirt the killer dragged in here on his boot," Barry added.

"Which got me thinking, there's a sugar refinery two miles from here. The land around it is suffused in with sugars, so I checked, they had a delivery truck stolen a few days ago," Felicity said.

"Their truck matches the make and model of the truck used to steal the centrifuge," Barry continued.

"Did you track the vehicle?" Oliver asked.

"We've been trying," Felicity answered. The computer beeped again.

"What was that?" Oliver questioned.

"You're not going to believe this, the truck, it was just used to rob a blood bank," Felicity said.

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked.

"Yeah, our guy just made off with 30ccs of O negative." She answered.

"Wait, super strength, likes blood, please don't tell me we suddenly believe in vampires." John joked.

Felicity had to fight her automatic reaction of smiling at John's comment, seeing as how he had met two of her vampire friends. She took in a large breath of air so as to not laugh when she identifies a new scent in the air: fear.

"We should give this information to the local police," Barry said.

"I'll take care of that," Oliver replied. "Did you say you were working a similar case in Central City?"

"Yeah, you know it's similar, it has similar elements, a lot of similarities," Barry nodded.

"Right," Oliver replied.

Oliver and John walked closer to the entrance in order to speak privately, Felicity assumed, about that night's new priorities. _"I want you to look into this Allen kid. There's more to him than he is letting on."_

" _His intentions seem pretty clear to me," John replied._

" _Just do it please."_

" _Oliver, when are you going to tell me what exactly we are up against?" John asked._

* * *

"Oww!" Oliver yelled.

"Sorry," Felicity said as she was helping with first aid.

"Ahhh, thank you," Oliver replied. He pulled his hoodie back on with a wince and gulp of air. "You were right to ask if I knew more than I was letting on. I've seen men with abilities like that before."

"You have? Where?" Felicity asked. For a second she got hopeful, hopeful maybe Oliver already knew something about what she was and wouldn't outright try to kill her for being what she was, but from the look on his face, the spark of hope was quickly suffocated.

"The island. My second year marooned there, we, I came across the remains of a Japanese WWII military project. It was a serum designed to create human weapons," Oliver said.

"Human weapons, my god what's next, aliens?" John joked.

"This is real, Diggle. Those five years that I was away I came across things that just defy explanation. A doctor, his name was Ivo, he came to the island to test the serum on people. The ones that survive their endurance, reflexes, and strength were all enhanced."

"And you think this Ivo is in Starling City?"

"He's dead," Oliver replied. "And so is everyone that he injected with the serum, the last of which I burned."

"You think someone found the recipe," John guessed.

"A centrifuge and a large supply of blood, I think someone wants to make more of it. A lot more."

"Why couldn't you have been marooned on Aruba?" Felicity asked.

"There's a third component. A strong sedative." Oliver handed Felicity a bent up arrow.

"I think I preferred it when you left these in people." She winced as she accepted the now useless piece of metal.

"I need you to analyze the blood on the arrow head. If we can figure out which sedative they're using-"

"We can figure out where the next robbery will be," John finished.

Felicity gulped down a gag. "Barry and I will get right on it." Felicity made her way over to the desk to get a sample kit.

" _I think our Ms. Smoak is smitten," John said._

" _Diggle what did you find out about Mr. Allen?" Oliver asked._

" _He's not who he says he is." John said._

Felicity shook her head for a second to dispel what John had just said. Her instincts about Barry were good, and while she trusted her friends, she also lost count of the number of times Oliver had jumped at his own shadow the first week she had started working with the team. She knew Barry wasn't lying about his reason for being here. And even if she suspected his boss didn't know what was going on, she also suspected even if they did ask him to leave Barry wasn't going to drop this case. Her wolf even liked him, and her wolf, while sometimes impulsive, had never been wrong when it came to trusting people. She just needed to trust herself.

* * *

"They have nitric acid next to hydrazine?" Barry questioned. "Manganese on top of acetone. This," Barry started waving two containers around from atop the stepladder, "is the definition of dangerous."

"If it's so dangerous then maybe you shouldn't be touching them," Felicity replied. There was a loud thunder clap from outside that distracted her for a moment, reminiscent of the gunshots going off in her ear, but she blocked it out. "Barry."

"Yeah."

"I managed to get a sample of the perpetrator's blood from the police department," Felicity told him. "We need to isolate a sedative in the blood, it could lead us to the thief."

"How did the police get it?" Barry asked, still reorganizing various containers around on the shelves.

"Apparently, the vigilante shot him with an arrow," Felicity answered.

"You're kidding?" Barry asked. "You know what this means right? This means the vigilante is working the same case we are." He beamed.

Felicity chuckled. "Go figure."

"How did you get it?" Barry asked.

"Oliver has a lot of connections," Felicity answered.

"Wow." Barry laughed. "It pays to work for a billionaire."

"Actually my take home is nothing special. Especially given that I am rarely at home since I'm with him every night."

"Oh. I didn't realize you and he were-"

"Oh no," Felicity rushed to correct. "No. We're, he and I are not, I do not _like_ Oliver." She smiled at Barry and he smiled back before going back over to the shelf. "Umm, I was invited to a work function, it's a, it's a party and I have a plus one." Barry nodded in understanding. "And I was thinking you would make a really good plus one."

Barry smiled for a minute before the look of joy disappeared. "There's not going to be dancing is there? I'm just not too good on my feet."

* * *

"Pretty cool right?" Barry asked after pulling up the article on her computer.

"You know there's been 100 percent increase in earthquakes since they turned on the large hadron collider?" Felicity double checked.

"That data is misleading," Barry began.

"Oh, do tell," Felicity said.

"You know about misleading don't you?" Oliver snapped as he entered the office.

"What are you talking about?" Felicity asked.

"He's not a full CSI, he's an assistant," Oliver said. "Who's bosses don't know you're in Starling, and there is no similar case in Central City. So tell me Barry, what are you really doing here?"

Felicity turned her attention back to Barry and was somewhat surprised to smell the scent of shame coming off the man in waves. What was more surprising was her wolf wanting to comfort him.

"I told you my mom was murdered," Barry began.

"By your father." Oliver added.

"He didn't do it," Barry objected. His scent shifted to anger when he looked at Oliver.

"You said the police didn't find the man who killed her," Felicity said.

"The police think they did," Barry said. He turned his attention back to her and his scent shifted again, back to shame, the anger ebbing away. "My dad has been serving a life sentence." He shook his head back and forth. "They didn't believe me."

"About what?" Felicity asked.

"I was eleven. One night something just came into our house like a tornado, a blur, somewhere inside the blur I saw a person. My dad went to fight it, I tried to get him when suddenly-" Barry sighed and shook his head again. "I was twenty blocks away from our house. Nobody believed me. They thought I was trying to cover for my father, but what I saw that night was real. As real as the man that ripped down that metal door with his bare hands. That's why I look into cases like this, the ones nobody believes are possible. Maybe if I can just make sense of one I might be able to find out who really killed my mother and free my dad. I am sorry I lied to you. You better find another plus one." Barry dejectedly exited the office.

"He did lie about who he really was." Oliver pointed out.

"And what do we do every day?" Felicity grabbed her bag and stormed past her friends.

She tried to catch up to Barry by discarding her heels and taking the stairs, but when she got to the first floor his scent was virtually gone and the elevator he'd taken was empty.

* * *

"Why do I have to go?" Isaac asked again as Felicity untied and fixed his tie.

"Because Oliver invited all of us and it would be rude not to attend, especially since he knows you're in town," the shorter blonde pointed out.

"But I don't even know his mom, and I hate wearing a tie."

"Isaac," Cora began as she walked down the stairs in a black cocktail dress with gold accents. "If I have to wear a dress then you have to wear a tie."

"But it's yellow," the teen argued. "I don't like yellow."

"It's gold, and it matches your eyes," Felicity told him. "And it also makes you look very dashing."

"Ok," Derek said exiting the living room. "I cross referenced every person in mom's old address book with everyone on the list Oliver gave you and half of them have agreed to show, so we know the party won't be a complete bust."

"What does that put the total number of people at?" Felicity asked.

"About 100 people agreed to show up," Derek admitted. "Most of them from allied packs, but I did reach out to some of our mutual business contacts, so we know it won't be a complete political nightmare."

"Good," Felicity nodded, straightening out Isaac's tie and checking over her other siblings' appearances. The boys were in matching all black suits, the only part of their outfits that differed were their respective ties. Isaac's tie was gold to match the true color of his eyes, just like Derek's was pale blue to match his. "So how many people do you think will actually show up?"

"At least it won't be only Oliver's family mingling with the caterers," Derek replied.

"That is not comforting," Felicity told him with a glare.

"I don't get why we have to match our colors to our eyes?" Cora complained. "Isaac and I don't like gold, and there you are wearing something that's not red. If we have to match, then why don't you?"

"It's pink, that's close enough," Felicity said.

"Says the person who looked at sixteen different ties before finding the 'perfect' shade of blue," Derek grumbled.

There was a soft knock at the front door and Derek shot Felicity a puzzled look. "I'm expecting people," she replied simply, before making her way to the front door and opening it wide. "Well, you two look very beautiful."

"Thank you," Allison said, stepping through the open doorway followed by Lydia. They were both wearing similar black cocktail dresses that matched both Isaac's suit and Cora's dress (Felicity needed to remember to thank Sara for giving her Lydia's number, because all three siblings without dates would have been an utter disaster and this way maybe some good will come out of gathering so many different supernatural creatures in one room).

"Allison." Isaac smiled. "I thought you were staying in Beacon Hills."

"Felicity called and said you and Cora needed dates so you didn't gouge your eyes out in sheer boredom," Allison replied.

"I did not say you would gouge your eyes out due to boredom," Felicity objected.

"But they really can be that boring," Derek added.

"And I figured if we got some people from other packs to show up, you guys could discretely poke around about the Nogitsune, since Stiles is in Eichen for the next three days," Felicity continued. "And Lydia is here so Cora doesn't stick her foot in her mouth."

"I can behave," Cora protested. The other occupants in the room stared at the young beta with their eyebrows raised. "I can."

"Prove it," Lydia challenged lightly.

A determined look came across the female beta's face accompanied by a long absent glint in her eye, Derek and Felicity hadn't seen since long before the fire. "I will."

"Pardon the remains of the many computers who lost their lives," Felicity joked. "Work has been really crazy so I haven't had much time to tidy up."

"But if you would like wind chimes made out of defunct twisted RAM, by all means feel free to grab them off of the floor," Cora added.

"Hey. No." Felicity quickly scrambled to pick up all of the RAM off the floor. "I can still fix these."

"Really?" Cora held up a stick that resembled a curly fry more than an expensive electronic component. "It makes rattling noises when I shake it."

Felicity snatched the part out of Cora's hand. "These are expensive."

"You have a majority stake in two of the most profitable companies in the country," Cora replied. "You can afford to build yourself a new fleet of computers. You do not need to salvage something if it is beyond saving."

"I liked it better when you didn't have full access to the family finance records," Felicity grumbled, placing the parts she had picked up in an open box in the corner.

"You really should have thought of that before you asked for my help with that algorithm," Cora said.

"Hey, no business talk," Derek said. "We're going to be late if we don't hurry up." He picked up car keys off the table next to the front door. "Lis, where are the keys to the Camaro?"

Felicity pulled the keys out of her purse and waved them. "My car, my keys."

"I'm not driving the midget car," Derek said.

"If you don't want to ride with me then call a cab," Felicity replied. "I don't trust you to drive my baby."

"I'll take those thank you." Cora took the keys to the Mini Cooper from Derek's grasp.

"You realize if you have a drink you have to stay at least two hours before you can drive home," Felicity told Cora.

"Then it's a good thing I'm not drinking," Cora replied. "Besides I doubt Oliver would stock his bar with something that could get is drunk."

"I'm serious Cora," Felicity said.

"I know. I won't drink. Promise." Cora smiled. She walked over to the driver's side of the smaller car with Allison, Lydia, and Isaac following behind her.

"You ok?" Derek asked, when their sibling had started the car and backed out of the driveway.

"This is going to be a nightmare." Felicity groaned and let her head hang down for a second.

"It's a party, the worst people can do is not show up, it would look bad if they did anything else," Derek replied. "Or is this about you not having a date?"

"You know, for your information, I had a date until Oliver ambushed him at QC. Plus he was cute and smart, and he wasn't fighting a biological impulse to kill me," Felicity said.

"You dated a vampire? When?"

"That summer before I went to MIT." Felicity opened her car door and got in the driver's side. "And considering my horrible track record with human boyfriends, supernatural boyfriends are a step up in the dating department."

"Is that you're roundabout way of telling me you have feelings for Thierry?" Derek asked.

"No," Felicity scoffed. "I just, I liked Barry, ok. I haven't gotten along with a guy that well in a long time, and then life happened."

"At least you don't have my track record," Derek replied.

* * *

"So, how exactly did you get all of these people here?" Thea asked her brother as they waited for their mother outside of the fairly occupied ballroom.

"I invited them," Oliver answered.

"Then why do most of them look like they want to kill you?" Thea asked.

Both siblings glanced around the room at the many guests, most of whom they recognized, only to see several of them glaring daggers at Oliver.

"I might've had to call in a few favors to get people to show up," Oliver admitted reluctantly.

"Does Mom know?"

"Probably. Derek is most likely going to hold this over my head every time he sees me for the rest of our lives," Oliver said.

"Derek, as in Derek Hale?" Thea double checked.

"How many other Derek's do we know?" Oliver asked.

"I thought you two hated each other?"

"It turns out we have some common ground," Oliver admitted. "We ran into each other a few weeks ago."

"Please tell me this common ground isn't a girl." Thea sighed.

"It's a mutual friend," Oliver said.

"It is a girl. Are you being serious right now, Ollie?"

"Oliver, Thea," their mother said, getting their attention as she descended the stairs. "You both did a wonderful job setting this up. I'm impressed."

"Well, we can't take all of the credit," Thea said. "The Hale siblings helped too, apparently."

"You're kidding," Moira said in surprise. "That was very nice of them."

"It's the least we could do," Derek said, casually entering the conversation. "You look beautiful Mrs. Queen."

"Thank you Derek. You look very handsome, yourself. Is it just you here or are your siblings here too?" Moira asked.

"We're all here," Derek confirmed. "Lis and I will try and corral them over here later to talk, right now they're attempting to mingle, or rather their dates are making them mingle."

"Ah yes, the dreaded rounds of socialization, as your mother liked to call it," Moira remembered.

"Some people like banquets, others like barbeques," Derek said.

"Do make sure you all say stop by so we can catch up." Moira told him before excusing herself to talk to the other guests. "Oliver, do you mind helping?"

"Not at all," Oliver replied.

"You look very fancy for someone who used to live in jeans and t-shirts." Thea teased.

"And you look very grown up." Derek smiled.

Thea snorted. "Surprised?"

"A little," Derek joked. "I heard you run a business now, a night club."

"Yeah, I'm running Ollie's club while he runs QC," Thea confirmed. "You guys should stop by while you're still in town. We can all get together and have drinks, reminisce."

"Sounds like fun." Derek smiled. "Normally I would recommend breakfast at the house, but Lis may or may not have turned it into a tech graveyard for a work project."

"She went to MIT, right?" Thea double checked.

"She did." Derek nodded. "Her and Laura both actually. They seemed to really like it there."

"So, what have you been up to? I haven't really seen you guys since the fire. I know Ollie said you had some friends in common, but I didn't expect you two to actually get along, let alone help us with this party," Thea said.

"Lis is the one who insisted on helping," Derek told her. "She actually works for QC, has ever since she graduated."

"Wait." Thea paused. "Oh my god. Felicity is your older sister. Your eldest sister is my brother's EA."

"You seriously couldn't even make it five minutes," Cora hissed, as she practically stampeded the 100 feet between her and her older brother after overhearing Thea's comment. "If this gets back to the other people at QC Lis will kill you, only to resurrect you and make you clean up the mess. She doesn't like most of the people here, let alone trust them. What if Mrs. Queen finds out, then we're really going to have a shit storm on our hands. All it takes is for one of them to overhear a single comment and they'll attack like sharks."

"I think you might be overreacting a little bit," Derek said.

"The number of people in this room that I currently trust doesn't even go up to the double digits, and that list does not include Oliver, no matter what Felicity thinks of him. No offense Thea, I know he's your brother-"

"Trust me, I am not opening that can of worms," Thea replied. "And I will probably regret asking this, but Felicity and Oliver aren't sleeping together, right?"

"If they were I would kill him," Derek said.

"Many men over the years have shared in that sentiment," Thea said.

"You can't kill Oliver," Cora added. "I already called dibs."

"When?" Derek asked.

"When I was seven. I saw a trashy magazine at the store that said Oliver was a man whore who broke women's hearts and made Lis tell me what that was, and then I declared that if anyone ever treated one of you guys like that I would eat them alive and burry the body so deep in the preserve, not even mom would be able to find it," Cora explained.

Thea noticed a red head quickly turn her attention to her friend before excusing herself from her current conversation and stomping over to where they were. She looked Cora right in the eye and shook her head. "Really? I mean, Isaac and Allison were a given considering the circumstances, but threatening the host. I expected more."

"It was a statement of fact," Cora replied. "I haven't technically broken the terms of the deal."

The red-head raised one eyebrow.

"C'mon Lydia, it's not like you to not toe the line a bit. Admit it. This is the most fun you've had in weeks," Cora said. "Nice venue, good food, free booze, a gorgeous dress, and people who use words to kill instead of weapons. This is your idea of a perfect evening."

"Oh Cora, you think you know what I'm capable of, but you have no idea. Game on little wolf." Lydia smirked, before flipping her hair and sauntering off.

Cora watched her date walk away and once she was certain they couldn't be overheard by the banshee she sighed. "That's my date," she said with a huge grin on her face.

Thea looked at Cora in shock.

"What?" Cora asked. "How could you not find that hot?"

Thea glanced over at Derek who just looked at the ceiling with a pained expression in his face. "Did we just witness the same conversation?" Thea asked him.

"Cora, Lydia is a good person and a good friend," Derek said. "But she also doesn't like you the same way you like her."

"Oh Derek, I know you don't have the best of luck with relationships of the non platonic variety, but not everything is about romance," Cora replied, as she went after her date.

Thea started snickering while Derek looked at his younger sister's retreating form in shock.

"If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go find something heavy to drop on my head until I've forgotten the last five minutes of my life."

* * *

"Yes," Barry said into his phone as he paced back and forth in the lab. "Yes sir. Yes, Director Singh I know that this is not the first time. Yes, sir, I do value my job. Very much. I will be on the next train. Mmhmm, I'll be back tonight. Ok." Barry stared at his phone for a second before sighing and putting it away. "Well my boss found out I don't have food poisoning. I need to get back to Central City if I still want to be employed, which I do. Tell the SCPD that the sedative in the thief's blood is ketamine. It's a scheduled three controlled substance; it shouldn't be too hard to track."

"I'll make sure they get it," Felicity told him.

Barry nodded. "It was really nice-"

"Thank you for-"

"Working with-"

"Everything I couldn't have… done it without you."

Barry sighed. "Good bye Felicity."

"Good bye," Felicity whispered to herself while she watched Barry walk away.

* * *

"We found trace amounts of ketamine in the thief's blood," Felicity announced walking into the lair. "It's a common surgical anesthesia derived from hydrochloric salt."

"Can you use that to track him?" Oliver asked.

"With the current concentration ratio in the blood sample there is only one possible location with a large enough quantity of the sedative that correlates with the amount of blood the centrifuge can process." With a few clicks on her keyboard Felicity had pulled up a picture of large grey building.

"What is it, there's no sign?" John asked.

"ARGUS doesn't like to advertise," Felicity replied. "It's a disaster bunker, right on the edge of the glades. ARGUS has them all over the country. They store relief supplies. Food, clothing-"

"Medicine," John finished.

"I'm on my way," Oliver said.

"Oliver, I can't believe I'm actually saying this." She walked over to her friend holding the bent up arrow. "The way this arrow head is bent; it means our thief's muscle density is at least 120 lbs./cubic foot. That's almost the same density as common concrete. Your arrows may cut this guy, but they will not stop him."

"I beat someone like this before Felicity. I can do it again," he assured her.

"What if you can't?"

"Oliver," John said, motioning to the computer screen with the security footage of Verdant's back alley, showing a small arrow stuck in the wall.

* * *

Felicity was sitting at her desk in the lair while John was cleaning weapons. Oliver had literally just left to talk to Roy and her eyes kept wandering over to the security feed that showed the back alley. She looked over her shoulder and saw John was completely occupied with his chosen task, so she turned on the comms and muted her end so Oliver wouldn't know she was eavesdropping on his meeting.

"What?" Oliver asked.

"I need your help," Roy replied. "A friend of mine's friend, well the cops think he OD'd, but we think he was murdered."

"Why?"

"Well, he wasn't an addict for starters, and this," Roy pulled up a picture of the body on his phone, "this doesn't look like any OD I've ever seen."

"Stay away from that." Oliver ordered.

"You know something? What happened to him?" Roy asked. "You're the one who told me to be your eyes and ears on the streets, and you know what that is not good enough for me anymore."

"Fine. Then we're done all together."

"I don't need you! I have friends that can help me. You can't stop us."

"I can slow you down," Oliver said. He drew an arrow and shot Roy through the lower leg.

Felicity winced and her wolf whined in sympathy for Roy. There was no denying that their meeting could have gone much better. Her own experiences with Isaac and Derek had taught her that hurting your loved ones to stop them from getting themselves was never a good idea. "This is bad."

* * *

Felicity and John had been searching the warehouse for a few minutes with little luck, when they came upon the trail of destruction.

"Oliver!" John called out.

"Oliver!" Felicity repeated.

"Oliver!"

"Oliver!" Felicity rushed to her friend's limp body where there were two spent syringes sticking out of his leg.

"Is he alive?" John asked.

Felicity checked for his vitals. "His pulse is weak, but it's there. Oliver, can you hear me?" she held his head up and checked his eyes. "His pupils are dilated." She turned her attention to the syringes in his leg and pulled them out.

"What the hell was that?" John asked.

"I don't know it's coded." She got up from the floor and ran over to the nearby computer terminal. She tried to turn it one but it was completely trashed. "Damnit! Look, I can't break into the dispensary files. I have no idea what he was injected with. Poisoned with."

"I know, we have no choice," John said.

"What are you doing?" Felicity asked.

"I'm calling 911." John had his phone out and was ready to dial.

"Digg wait."

"It can't wait."

"How are we supposed to explain this? Everyone is going to find out Oliver is the vigilante."

"It won't matter if he's dead." John dialed the number and hit call, pulling the phone closer to his ear.

"Wait!" Felicity took the phone away from him.

"Felicity we can't save him!"

"I know, you're right," she immediately replied. "We can't." She pocketed John's phone so he didn't get any ideas and pulled out her own. "But I know someone who can."

* * *

Felicity was about ready to wake Barry up by kicking him out of her chair. She'd heard the sensation of falling woke people up, and if that turned out to be a lie she could always scare the crap out of him. Time was the most important factor in saving the life of her pack member, so guilt wasn't even going to be a small issue. Thankfully, Barry's heart rate picked up slightly indicating that he was about to wake on his own, no intervention necessary.

"Please," Felicity nearly begged when Barry had begun to realize where he was. "Save my friend."


	12. Flash of Lightning Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIVE! I know I owe you several thousands of words. And you will get them. Eventually. Probably. I think. (But if someone could please post how many words I do owe I will be eternally in their debt).
> 
> Anyways, NOT my point. I am throwing the posting schedule out the window. I can no longer hold myself to those standards, mostly because if I did, I would owe the entire story before I'd even finished it or at the very least everything I have written thus far, and there are so many plot holes and time gaps, trust me, you don't want that. Enjoy this chapter. Leave your feedback and reviews (they make life amazing). Tell me if I made any horrible glaring mistakes, because I'm sure there are several.
> 
> Also, graciously thank my Managerial Accounting professor, because if she had not canceled my class this morning, this would not have been posted yet. But more importantly, thank the Power Rangers Movie and Fitz and the Tantrums, specifically the training montage scene and the scene where Trini's mom demands a drug test. If you haven't seen it, you should.
> 
> Italics = eavesdropping
> 
> underline = flashback

Felicity was in full on panic mode, which right now meant shoving everything that didn't pertain to keeping Oliver alive in the lock box in the back of her brain, which unfortunately also meant her wolf had more control over her physical faculties and emotions than she did. She wasn't sure if she should be grateful or terrified but considering her wolf hadn't outright attacked or bitten Oliver, she was leaning towards grateful.

The heart monitors going crazy next to her broke her out of her musings.

"Hold him." Barry ordered.

Felicity and John were practically pushing Oliver down on the table to stop his body from moving.

"He's not going to make it," John said.

"He will." Felicity snapped. "We just need to find out what's in his system." She looked over at Barry urging the man to do something.

"I, I uh, I usually work on dead people." Barry replied.

"Barry!" Felicity ordered.

Barry got a more determined look on his face. "Alright, I can think of four possible diagnoses of what's causing his body to react this way." He picked up a small flashlight and shined it in Oliver's eyes. "Make that three possible diagnoses."

Oliver's frantic heartbeat suddenly stopped, while the monitors made more emergency noises.

"Start chest compressions," Barry told Digg. The CSI quickly grabbed a needle and a small basin before going back over to Oliver. "I need to get to his arm." John moved over to the side more and Barry drew what Felicity assumed was a blood sample. Barry held the needle up in front of his face. "Got it. He's suffering from intravenous coagulation."

Felicity's wolf wanted to snap at her friend, but she managed to barely hold back. "What?"

"His blood is unnaturally clotting. It's like maple syrup," Barry replied.

"You can save him right?" Felicity asked.

Barry began looking around the lair when he obviously spotted something. "Right." He ran over to the shelving unit in the back and came back with a large red box. "Lucky you guys have a rat problem."

"Are you kidding, that will kill him." John snapped.

Barry was measuring out what he needed into a beaker when he seemed to have found his backbone. "He dies if I don't."

"Felicity?" John questioned.

"Do it." Her wolf gave the order, and any other time she probably would have been gobsmacked at the current lack of control she had over her own motor functions, but she right now she knew that her wolf was just as desperate as she was, if not more.

Barry came back over with a syringe of the chemical and injected it into the IV. "Ok, just the right amount of this stuff will get his blood thin enough to get it circulating again."

"He's crashing," John said when the man's pulse hadn't come back but never stopping the compressions.

"Oliver stay with me." Felicity ordered. She saw his head loll to the side and his arm hang over the edge. John rushed to get the paddles from behind him when the monitor began picking up a pulse again. With every next beep of the machine, Felicity felt her wolf ease more until, finally, she slumped forward in relief before going to collapse in her chair.

* * *

Barry was attempting to pull a fingerprint off of Oliver's neck when he returned to consciousness and began to strangle the CSI.

"Oliver, let him go," John said as he pulled Oliver back onto the table.

"Oliver." Felicity said as she tried to get Oliver to stop struggling.

Oliver quickly got off the table and looked around accusingly. "What the hell is going on?"

"You were injected with a strong acting blood coagulant," Felicity explained calmly.

"You would have stroked out," Barry added with a huff to get more air in his lungs, "but fortunately you had a very effective blood thinner handy, warfarin, better known as rat poison."

"The kid saved your life Oliver." John replied.

Felicity's wolf was alert again, not quite taking control like it had earlier when she needed it to, but still not content to sit back and just observe. "This is the point of the life-saving emergency where you thank the person that did the life-saving."

"You told him who I am," Oliver realized.

"Yeah, I did." Felicity confirmed with a small nod.

"That's not your secret to tell, Felicity." Oliver's scent was beginning to change, the normal wood-like tones becoming smoke like. Her pack member was angry. "I decide who finds out my identity."

"Well, we didn't have time to get your vote. What with you unconscious and dying." Felicity replied.

"What happens if he leaves here and goes right to the police?" Oliver asked.

"He wouldn't do that." Her wolf saw the beginnings of a challenge and wasn't going to back down, even if rationally, Oliver had a right to his opinion, Felicity wasn't going to let him ream her over the coals for making the right call.

"I wouldn't do that." Barry spoke up.

"I trust him," Felicity said.

"I don't," Oliver replied.

"What are you going to do, put an arrow in him?"

"I am considering it." Oliver looked over at Barry when he said it.

"Don't worry he's kidding." Felicity snapped, her gaze only shifting momentarily before locking back on Oliver. "How is this any different than when your mother shot you and you came to me for help?"

"Your mother shot you?" Barry questioned, but Oliver just held up a finger for the younger man to be quiet.

"Or when you brought Digg down here when he was poisoned with korari?" Felicity continued to push.

"The difference is that I did my homework on both of you." Oliver defended himself. "I don't just tell people easily."

"Look I'm not going to tell anyone, and you don't have to thank me, but you should thank her instead of being kind of a jerk," Barry said getting more confident.

Oliver turned his attention back to the newcomer and started to advance when Barry chose to remind the vigilante just what information he had that Oliver was so afraid of. "Mr. Queen."

There was a notification ping on one of the phones and Oliver sighed. He picked up the device and checked the message, before taking a deep breath. "Ugh. I have to go home." Oliver turned back to look at Diggle. "The man that I fought in the bunker, he has what he needs to mass produce the serum from the island. We have to stop him." He slowly headed towards the exit, clearly exhausted.

Barry picked up the paper and tape off the lab table. "He touched your skin when he grabbed your neck. I was able to absorb the residual oils from his skin when added to a gel-based polymer might be able to recreate his fingerprint."

Oliver turned around and looked at what the CSI was holding before nodding, and beginning his trek up the stairs.

"Never meet your heroes, right." Felicity tried to lighten the mood, but it fell flat when she realized Barry was more angry than disappointed. "C'mon, I'll make some coffee."

* * *

"I knew the vigilante had partners." Barry had spent the last few hours examining the room with a sense of awe now that he had nothing else to focus on.

"He likes to be called the Arrow now," John replied.

"You three have messed with some really nasty people, the Doll Maker, Count Vertigo, Dodger, the Huntress," Barry continued.

Felicity flinched at the mention of the drug dealer. She looked over her shoulder to make sure Barry hadn't noticed, only to catch John giving her a concerned look, having noticed her involuntary reaction. 'I'm fine,' she mouthed silently.

John rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Barry. "We weren't keeping score."

"I was," Barry said.

"Barry," Oliver snapped out as he entered the room. "The rat poison that you gave me. Are there any side effects?"

"Yeah, um, I think, hallucinations, maybe, and excessive sweating. Are you sweating excessively?" Barry winced at the older man's angry expression.

"You're hallucinating. What do you see?" Felicity asked.

"A girl named Shado that was with me on the island," Oliver answered.

"Shado, Sara. How many women were you marooned with? You sure this wasn't fantasy island?" Felicity walked away and her worry changed to a sour taste in the back of her mouth while she started working on her computer.

"You did train in a jungle or forest environment, hence the green." Barry went back over to Oliver with an excited look on his face, which quickly shifted when he noticed the older man was more worried than angry now. "Here let me draw some blood, see what's up."

There was a momentary pause when Felicity assumed Barry was trying to concentrate. "Hey can I ask you something? Why no mask? Not to tell you how to do your vigilante-ing but the grease paint thing, it's a poor identity concealer."

"So find me a mask that conforms perfectly to my face and doesn't affect my ability to aim while I'm on the run," Oliver replied.

"You should look into a compressible micro fabric. It could be great." Barry smiled.

"I found Cyrus Gold," Felicity said.

"Who is Cyrus Gold?" Oliver asked.

"The human weapon that left you nearly dead the other night." Digg answered. "The kid did manage to pull his print off your neck."

"I've had facial recognition software scanning closed circuit cameras all over town. He's at the corner of Delgado and 25th right now, but we're just about to lose him." Felicity was attempting to focus on her work while her wolf was sulking over the hallucination's effect on her pack member.

"What else is at that intersection?" Oliver continued to question

"A parking lot, a market, a motel." Felicity replied.

"Could be where he's holed up." Digg suggested.

"I got this," Oliver said.

"Oliver." John stopped the younger man. "Why don't you let me handle this one. It's just recon."

"Fine." Oliver sighed. "But I'm going as your back up."

The two men quickly exited the room and she looked over at her new friend.

"Don't worry, I'll figure out what's wrong with Oliver." Barry told her.

"You'd be the first," Felicity replied.

They worked in companionable silence for a while before Felicity realized she was essentially just doing things to keep herself busy.

"So Barry, how long is that blood test going to take?" Felicity asked.

"Well, I've done all I can with it really. Now the computer just has to go through all of the data and tell us what's wrong," Barry answered.

"How long does it normally take for that?"

"It depends really, normally the time ranges anywhere between twelve and eighteen hours," Barry said.

"Good." Felicity smiled. She grabbed her bag and began grabbing anything she might need.

"Why is that good?" Barry asked.

"Well, I'm assuming the program you're using is automated, right?"

"It is." Barry nodded.

"That means I can go home and sleep, so come on." She motioned for him to follow her.

"I don't want to inconvenience you," Barry said. "I can just stay here for the night, there's that cot in the corner that doesn't look too lumpy, I'll be fine."

"Barry, one that cot is almost as bad as sleeping on the ground, I know, I've slept on it, and two there is plenty of space and an empty bed that is much more comfortable sitting unused in my guest room. I'm not saying you have to take it, but since you checked out of your hotel, and we knocked you out and brought you here, you might as well." Felicity shrugged. "And if you look at it from my perspective, I owe you for helping us and for Oliver reacting badly."

"You're not responsible for Oliver's actions," Barry said.

Felicity let out a whine like noise. "Let's just agree to disagree on that."

"You're sure it's cool if I stay with you?" Barry asked as he grabbed his things and followed her up the stairs. "There's no one who is going to mind, like a roommate or something?"

"If you are referring to the people who were glaring at you during the party the other night, no they won't mind." Felicity smiled at him and pulled her keys out of her purse. "Derek and Isaac can be protective."

"Did you use to date one of them, not that I'm judging, it's just you don't seem to look at them like that," Barry replied. "Actually, never mind, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's none of my business."

She opened the door to the club and held it open for Barry, before walking over to her car and opening the trunk.

Barry let out a low whistle. "Wow. I might not know much about cars, but even I can tell it's… Wow."

"Thanks. My Stepdad was a mechanic and he tried teaching my siblings and me how to fix cars before he died. At the time it pretty much went right over our heads but he made this entire video series for us that covered every type of problem you could ever have with a car. After the fire, Laura, my oldest younger sibling, and I watched those videos for hours just so we could hear his voice again. Eventually, my Uncle Joe said screw it and took us to a scrap yard and we got a salvage certificate and we fixed it up."

"That's really cool that he did that for you guys," Barry said. "Did your mom ever do anything like that?"

"My mom was more of a journal person. She once destroyed an entire computer system trying to attach a webcam so we could video chat while I was at summer camp. The sad thing is that it was a plug and play webcam, and that was when Mom became banned from all electronics with the exception of the rotary phone in the kitchen and the TV." She quickly got in the car and when Barry had his seat belt buckled she started the engine and headed towards the house.

Felicity thought back to the party the night before while she drove in a comfortable silence.

"So not to sound paranoid or anything, but there are two guys staring at us," Barry said.

"Is one of them roughly Oliver's size and build, with short black hair and a judgemental look on his face?" Felicity asked. "And the other is taller and lankier, with curly brown hair and an equally judgemental and nearly identical look?"

Barry nodded.

"It's fine I know them. They probably won't kill you." Felicity said.

"You know them?!"

"Is it really that hard to believe I have a life outside of my job?" Felicity asked.

"I'm sorry, I'm just not used to people glaring at me like that."

"Don't take it personally, they glare at everybody."

"They don't like that you're dancing with Felicity," Cora said. She and Lydia had been dancing circles around the other couples on the dance floor for the two songs. "Hi, I'm Cora, and the goddess across from me is Lydia."

"Barry Allen." They stopped swaying momentarily so he could offer his hand in greeting. "It's nice to meet you."

"You two seem to be in a good mood," Felicity said.

"Despite the large amount of forced polite social interaction and lack of useful information being gathered, I've found that your sister is an adequate date. She continues to surprise," Lydia said.

Felicity managed to catch a glimpse of the puzzled look on Barry's face before turning her full attention to Cora. The younger werewolf looked like someone had gifted her with every Christmas gift she had ever wanted. Cora was also quick to school her expression back before Lydia could see it.

"Also, don't look now, but Robot Rochev looks like someone just made her swallow an entire lemon," Cora said. She gestured discretely over her shoulder. "Queen Matriarch - 1; Robot Rochev - 0."

"You do realize that woman is my boss right?" Felicity asked. "She has the ability to make my life very difficult."

"Wasn't she the person who-" Lydia began.

"She was." Cora nodded. "You know, it would be remiss of us not to at least say hello. We wouldn't want to seem rude."

Felicity didn't miss the way her sister's eyes flashed, and from the smirk on Lydia's face, the banshee hadn't missed it either. "I find myself in complete agreement," Lydia replied. "After all, it's only polite."

"Excuse us," Cora said. The pair then set their collective sights on the dark-haired woman, focusing like a pair of predators would on their prey.

"Your sister?" Barry said.

"Yep." Felicity nodded.

"Is she normally so-" Barry's voice trailed off as he struggled for the proper adjective.

"Cora can be combative at times," Felicity replied.

"And Lydia?"

"I try not to think about the dynamics of their relationship, mostly for my own sanity."

"Seems smart."

"This is where you live?" Barry leaned forward in his seat and looked at the house in awe.

"Yeah, and I should probably warn you about the mess ahead of time. I don't have a lot of time to clean between working at QC and my other job. Also, full disclosure, my younger siblings are in there, and at some point, they will do something weird and mortifyingly embarrassing."

"So how many siblings do you have?" Barry asked.

"I'm the oldest of five kids," Felicity answered. "Cora's the youngest; she's sixteen, then Isaac who's seventeen, and Derek who's twenty-three, and then Laura, she was twenty-three when she died."

"You two were close," Barry said.

"Yeah. Our Mom used to joke that we practically twins, we were so close. Laura's the only reason this beast is even running. She did most of the mechanic work on this, all I did was research and acquire the right parts."

"You must miss her."

"Every day." Felicity nodded. "The past couple years have been hard on all of us."

"What about your other siblings, what are they like?" Barry asked.

"Well, you've met Cora." Barry nodded in agreement. "Isaac is a cross between a scared kitten and an overexcited puppy," Felicity said. "And Derek and Oliver are so alike they can't even be in the same room for more than five minutes at a time."

"I'm sensing there's a story there," Barry replied.

"My mom was friends with Oliver's mom, so growing up we were encouraged to socialize with each other. To my knowledge, Cora is the only person who actually enjoyed spending time with the Queens. I met Oliver once when I was five and, after roughly two minutes, came to the decision I was never spending time with him ever again."

"And somehow twenty years later, you work together and spend insane amounts of time with each other," Barry said.

"Yeah. If my mom were here now she would probably laugh her ass off at the irony. My Uncle Duke enjoys teasing me about it constantly, along with throwing the occasional threat in Oliver's direction should he try anything."

"Does your family know about the whole-"

"They figured it out when the Arrow showed up in my hospital room last month," Felicity answered. "Kind of hard to explain why the city's vigilante would visit someone who was admitted for an extreme allergic reaction."

"And they don't mind?"

"It definitely pays to be the oldest."

* * *

Felicity and Barry had driven to the Arrow Cave in comfortable silence the next morning with full stomachs and full cups of coffee in their possession. Both going to their separate tasks upon arrival. By the time Felicity had done her sweeps of the system and signed off on all of the paperwork Derek had insisted she look through Barry had set up an array of chemicals on one of the empty lab tables and had a look of concentration that reminded her of when Thierry was on one of his research retreats.

"What are you doing?" Felicity asked.

"Uhh, just messing around with something," Barry replied.

"Shouldn't you be trying to figure out what is causing Oliver's hallucinations." She lightly scented him with a light brush of her hand across his shoulders as she walked past, having completely given up on the pretense of hiding her nature around someone her wolf had accepted so quickly.

"The sample is still being scanned. It shouldn't be too much longer."

"Good." Felicity nodded once.

"You're really worried about him, huh?" Barry realized.

"He takes crazy chances, even when he's not hallucinating about beautiful island girls."

"Mmhmm. The other night I asked you if you liked Oliver," Barry began.

"I told you, I don't," she replied.

Barry nodded. "I remember, but if you did, I could see why. I mean, Oliver Queen. He's a billionaire by day and saves the city by night."

Felicity smiled and let out a small laugh. "It sounds like you want to date him."

"I just have a little experience with liking someone who doesn't see you the same way," Barry admitted. He briefly glanced at his watch and when he noticed the time he turned on one of the TVs above their heads and they watched the news. "Guess I won't be back in time to see them turn it on."

"So what does your family do for Christmas?" Barry asked randomly.

"I make them help me light my menorah." Felicity answered.

Oliver walked over to where they were sitting. "Hey."

"Hey." Felicity smiled, spinning her chair around. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Oliver answered. "It's just a little bit crowded at my house and I wanted to come down here to get a little privacy."

"Yeah." Felicity instantly understood why he'd come here And got up from her seat. "C'mon Barry. We can watch the countdown at Big Belly Burger."

"Your blood analysis is almost done." Barry told him as he followed Felicity to the exit.

"Thank you," Oliver replied.

* * *

Felicity felt the air around her shift as she entered Verdant. The normal calming presence was gone and the cool air that smelt of faintly of sweat and hum of machines that made her feel at home was gone, replaced with fear and a potent overly sweet smell that reminded her of her aunt's extensive wolfsbane and mistletoe collection. There was a light tinkling sound she was starting to become overly familiar with in the past few weeks. She rounded the corner to see Oliver with a dustpan and broom, sweeping up the remnants of several cases.

"What happened in here? Did someone break in?" Felicity asked.

"No." Oliver answered.

There was a strange beeping noise Barry went to investigate. "Umm, your blood analysis is done. Good news."

"So you know what's in my system," Oliver said.

"Well, uh, that's the thing." Barry paused for second glancing briefly back at the computer before continuing. "Your blood is clean. There's nothing wrong with you."

"Then why am I hallucinating?!" Oliver snapped.

"I don't know," Barry answered. "I mean whatever your problem is it's not pharmacological, it's psychological. It's in your head."

Oliver sighed heavily.

Felicity noticed an indication pop up on the screen of her computer and pulled it up to see what was going on. "Oh my god. Oliver."

Felicity had the mental image of her wolf sitting on the floor behind her and howling while Oliver took out his frustrations by sharpening his arrowheads on an electric grindstone.

She could understand her pack member's anger over what had happened to Officer Lance. The only thing that had stopped her from calling her own family in for back-up in tracking Gold down was because they were all busy looking for leads on the Nogitsune, having turned up nothing from the other packs save for multiple suggestions of killing Scott's Lieutenant and being done with the whole thing.

Her pack was in pain after the attack on one of their own, and while Oliver wasn't foaming at the mouth and baying for blood like her wolf was, he was just as angry, and probably even more frustrated.

" _I think those are sharp enough," John said._

_Oliver turned off the grindstone. "Apparently I'm not. Diggle, do you think I'm losing my mind?"_

" _No more than the rest of us," John replied._

" _I saw Slade Wilson," Oliver admitted. "Slade was my friend on the island and like Shado he's dead because of me. Mr. Lance just told me that not every death in this city is my fault. Fine. There are plenty that are."_

" _When I got home from Afghanistan I saw ghosts too. It's survivor's guilt. Why us not them." John explained._

" _I know why."_

" _Then why is not your problem." John replied._

" _How did you make your ghosts go away?" Oliver asked._

_John took in a breath. "I figured out what they were trying to tell me."_

" _Which was?"_

" _That's for me to hear Oliver. You have to figure out what yours is trying to tell you," John said._

"Guys. We've got something here," Felicity said. "I scanned the key Lance gave you and traced its serial code back to the manufacturer."

"This particular key fits a locked gate somewhere on Crescent circle in the Glades," Barry continued.

Oliver went over to his weapons and grabbed his bow.

"Where are you going? You can't go out there in your condition." Felicity told him. She got up from her chair, not caring if she had to use her abilities to stop him from committing suicide.

"I have to stop this," Oliver replied.

"Oliver, Gold left you half dead, which is fifty percent better than how he left Detective Hilton." She pointed out.

"Felicity, I don't have a choice," he said. "I'll come back."

"Promise."

Oliver quickly turned away with the briefest shake of his head before exiting the building, while Felicity's wolf howled on the inside.

* * *

"You ok?" Derek asked.

Felicity turned around slowly. She had been looking out the window since she had come home from Verdant. She flashed a quick smile. "Yeah. Just another long night."

Derek nodded in understanding. "Oliver ok? You seemed worried earlier."

Felicity rolled her eyes, more out of habit than anything else. "He's just so Oliver."

"You don't say." Derek chuckled. "We heard some of the chatter from your tablet earlier."

"Yeah, I need to remember to disconnect that when I'm not using it," Felicity said. "I didn't mean to-"

"Lis, we get it," Derek replied. "You think we aren't going through the same thing with Stiles right now."

"I take it the research didn't go well."

Derek let out a heavy sigh. "All the packs and the research said the same thing. The same exact thing."

"I'm sorry. I know how much you care." She put a hand on her brother's forearm in an attempt to comfort him. "If anyone can find another way, it's you."

"I just, I feel useless. Stiles is the one who plans and researches and figures everything out. Isaac and I were soldiers, not strategists. This thing, it's got 1000+ years of experience and knows every single one of our weaknesses. It didn't take Stiles because he was human. It chose Stiles because it knew he was the only person who could destroy all of us. How do we fight something like that? Let alone beat it?"

"Then you have to do the only thing you can," Felicity replied. "You have to be there, you have to make sure Stiles knows you're there, and you have to support Scott and whatever crazy plan he comes up with. You have to make sure they both know you're fighting with them, even if it does seem impossible. All you can do is trust and have faith."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you probably noticed I glossed over the holiday references and skipped the after fight scene. There is a reason. So just keep that in mind please. 
> 
> And please drop a few words in the text box below. Even one. Literally one word and my day is suddenly amazing.


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